it's not good for the league to do that.
Fans don't want to see their favorite players leaving all the time.
It would damage the game to have that happen and constant contract negotiations

Only if another lockout is something that appeals to you.

That would cause a lockout, and it’s not like anyone has even come close to the max. The max is 20% of League Cap which is 15 Million, but no one has even come close closest is McDavid at 12.5M and I don’t think anyone is gonna get closer any time soon.

CTRL+C then f5 then CTRL+V

I think there's a couple changes they could make to the CBA to make contracts better.

1. Lower UFA age to 23.
2. Maintain max contract length of players coming off their ELCs at 8 years if they re-sign with their current club.
2. Decrease max contract length of players not coming off of ELCs to 6 years if they re-sign with their current club.
3. Decrease max contract length of players signing with a different team to 4 years.

This would have the following effect:

Players that sign at age 18, slide for 2 seasons, and finish their ELCs (i.e. the majority of non-star players), will be UFAs and can sign with any team they choose when their ELC ends. If they choose to sign on the open market, the max contract they can get is 4 years. However, if they sign with their current club, they can sign 8 year deals.

Star players that make their NHL clubs at age 18 or 19 will be RFAs when their 3-year ELCs expire (i.e. younger than 23). They can sign with their current teams for up to 8 years, but will still have to go through the offer sheet process if they want to sign elsewhere. They can negotiate shorter term deals if they want to test UFA sooner. This will generally keep franchise players with their drafting clubs until age 29, similar to the current CBA.

The majority of players will become UFAs at age 23 and can opt for a long contract with their drafting club until age 31, or to sign elsewhere and become UFAs again at age 27. Because of this option, players will generally get their big payday early, because their drafting teams can't underpay players simply because they are RFAs without negotiating rights anymore.

Open market contracts will generally end between age 31 and 33, meaning players won't be on huge paydays into their mid-to-late 30s anymore.

There is like no way the owners agree to this. Long contracts are beneficial to both parties involved, and 8 seems like a good number, because now you cant toss 13 years at someone who is 29 and lock them up until theyre 42 only to have them start being awful when they are 38 and nobody is going to give 8 years to anyone over 30

Would be nice to have rules to get in the way of some of these gms, team control should be reduced a couple years. All depending on when your entry level contract is started. My thought is 6 years, same 3 year elc and 3 option/arbitration years, and some guys would be ufas at 24, which puts majority of big contracts offered at 24/26 and ending at 32/34, instead of 26/28 and 34/36 ending. Just gives the kids a better chance of getting paid what there worth over waiting til there older and having a chance of too slow or injured to be beneficial on there monster contracts. It may protect a few players from also getting rushed into the league at 18 to delay original elc

Any thoughts on stealing from the nfl, and round drafted designate the money and years, and moving the age to 21, so first overall would be 5x3.2 million and work your way out of the first, and next couple rounds 4x1.0 million and then remaining 3x750000 or something along those lines. Ufa status after the contracts are up or buyouts. Or steal a little from baseball and have the team to have some leeway on the bonus money offered for draft slot.

20 or 21 year old draft would keep kids home a little longer and a better shot at a education, move the 15 year old draft to 17 and junior and university would still battle it out for players and Europeans could stay home longer and have some Mathews go over and play pro earlier than allowed in North America. There would be a few exceptions of missing out on some of the every few years 18 year olds that can light up the league, but in general I think it would be better for the league as a whole and possibly team control til 26, so some possible rfas but reduced with the first rounders getting 5 year deals.

Why would the NHL do that. They are getting more and more guys to come in at younger ages. Which is good for the game.
Furthermore, the whole idea is to not make these guys FA sooner. That doesn't work. You bring a guy in for 3 years, the fan base loves him and he's a FA and gone. No one really wants that but the players, and even a lot of them don't want that. Because they don't want to keep fighting each other over the cap space.
The current system is fine as is. You become a FA at no later than 27.
If you start at 18, you become one at what 24.
That's fine. Most guys enter the AHL at 20, Spend a year or two there. That's 22, so they only really play 5 years as a rookie. There is nothing wrong with that.
After putting that much into a guy, his development etc why shouldn't they get 5 years out of them.

The NHL revenue sharing with player is pretty well set at 50%. Unless the revenue goes up to, the 23 NHL roster is going to be about what it is now.

And let not get fooled thinking players want easier free agency just so top players can make more money. We are seeing right now how mid to lower end players are getting squeezed financially by high UFA and even some high RFA salaries. Since the majority of the NHLPA are mid to lower tier players, those players don't want their salaries eroded.

The NHL lost a battle years ago about the age of when a player is eligible to play in the NHL. So it's not increasing to age 21. And the NHL doesn't want to damage it's feeder system of junior players by taking out of "junior age" early and having them play in the AHL.

I'll let this one slide because you actually took the time to create an AGM so it kind of is fine per the rules but this type of question AGM belongs in the other forum section.

Its perfectly fine to pose questions, and its a good question to be honest, but this doesn't belong here. In the future please use the appropriate forums to discuss certain topics.

As for the topic, I don't think the contract length is the problem. Its something the players want and that's their right but I do feel the CBA should adapt to the changing of the times. Long term contracts should be mandatory-ly shortened the older the player is. I'm pretty sure a formula could be created to let the player know exactly how long they can sign for.

If you are over 30 years old, IMO you shouldn't be able to sign 7-8 year contracts, etc. Having a bunch of over the hill superstars on bloated contracts that the team behind closed doors don't even want anymore looks bad for the league. Seems every team has one over 30+ year old player who was signed for way too much and way too long and now is just struggling to make the roster. Players can't say no to guaranteed money and many GM's operate like its 80's still when players could be 35 years old, smoke cigarettes between periods, get drunk on weekends and still score 50+ goals a season..... I think its time to save GM's from themselves and have older players max term's be determined by their age and nothing else.