Contract offers: D-men

Can I just take this opportunity to remind GMs that D-men are not worth less than forwards when it comes to dishing out contracts.

There has been a tendency from GMs over the last few seasons to low-ball their D-men with their initial offers. The committee will obviously not let this slide and so it creates extra work for us and for you going back and forth.

To give some help with this matter consider the following, though these are by no mean hard and fast:

• Would you give a forward with a rating of 80 less than 5 million or a rating of 75 less than 3 million? Probably not. So the same stands for a d-men. Obviously there are other factors such as age, role, past performance to take into consideration here.

• A d-man that puts up c50 pts is doing a good job as an offensive asset. They don't have to be hitting 80pts a season to earn the big bucks.

• Offensive d-men are not the only valuable assets. Stay at home d-men need paying too. Blocking 100s of shots and and decent +/-. Then expect a decent + on their contract if you want them to keep laying those hits and blocking those shots. Defence is equally important as offence.

• How to do you intend to use the player in the past and what role have they held for you recently. A player who played the majority of the games in their last contract will want a reward if they have not underperformed. Equally if someone is making the jump from the farm to the pros reflect that change.

• Feel free to write an explanation with each of your offers, it really helps us with our deliberations if we see where you are coming from and we are more likely to approve you contract offers!

Happy contracting!

When does season 6 free agency start?

'Defense is equally as important as offence'

Not if you are from the Kevin Keegan school of management, its not

The plan is to open it up on the 21st with the aim to start the pre season on the 23rd or 24th. Then if I can get the schedule done quick enough we can begin the regular season some time in the week after that.