In professional sports , a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises ; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is allowed to solicit offers from other teams. In some circumstances, the free agent's options are limited by league rules.
71-595: The MLS SuperDraft is an annual college draft for teams of Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada. It takes place in January and is used by teams to select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been signed by the league. The SuperDraft was first instituted in 2000, as a combination of the MLS College Draft , in which players having graduated from college were selected, and
142-459: A free agent and can sign with any team. They also require minimum and sometimes maximum salaries for newly drafted players. Leagues may also allow teams to trade draft picks among each other in exchange for other draft picks or in exchange for players. In 1935, National Football League president Joseph Carr instituted the NFL draft as a way to restrain teams' payrolls and reduce the dominance of
213-449: A contract. Players who have been bought out of league standard contracts may have restrictions within that league, such as not being able to sign with the buy-out club for a period of time in the NHL, but are otherwise not restricted. The specific rules of restricted free agency vary among the major professional sports, but in principle it means that a player is currently signed to one team but
284-458: A deadline which occurs approximately a week prior to the NFL Draft (for 2010 the deadline was April 15), at which time their rights revert to their original club. If a player accepts an offer from a new club, the old club will have the right to match the offer and retain the player. If the old club elects not to match the offer, it may receive draft-choice compensation depending on the level of
355-408: A draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selects a player, the team receives exclusive rights to sign that player to a contract, and no other team in the league may sign the player. The process is similar to round-robin item allocation . The best-known type of draft is the entry draft, which is used to allocate players who have recently become eligible to play in
426-552: A free agent. Any player who is not entry-level, but does not meet the qualifications of unrestricted free agency becomes a restricted free agent when his contract expires. Players eligible for free agency are 24 years of age and older with five MLS service years and are out of contract or have had their option declined. Free agency has been available in the National Women's Soccer League since 2023; players eligible for free agency are required six years of service within
497-619: A given year will be ineligible to play in the National Hockey League for the balance of that season. However, other leagues (such as the National Basketball Association ) have no such restrictions on signing periods in season, despite having a moratorium in the offseason. In Europe, players can only move during transfer windows —during the close season and halfway through the league season. There are exceptions for unsigned professional players in
568-477: A league's annual draft of amateur players are considered to be unrestricted free agents and are free to negotiate contracts with any team. In most American professional sports, players are drafted by sequencing each team from worst to best (according to the teams' win–loss records the previous season, sometimes invoking a draft lottery factor to avoid having teams intentionally lose their last games to gain higher draft position) and allowing said teams to claim rights to
639-420: A league. Depending on the sport, the players may come from college , high school or junior teams, or teams in other countries. An entry draft is intended to prevent expensive bidding wars for young talent and to ensure that no team can sign contracts with all of the best young players and make the league uncompetitive. To encourage parity , teams that do poorly in the previous season usually get to choose first in
710-458: A player whose contract with their current club has expired and is thus free to join any other club under the terms of the Bosman ruling . Free agents do not have to be signed during the normal transfer window that is implemented in some countries' leagues. If they are signed by a team, the team signing them does not have to pay any fees – sometimes this is known as "a free transfer". If a player
781-523: A roster system based on where the club finished the previous year. It ran in reverse order with the wooden spooners getting first choice and the premiers last. The draft lasted just the one season before being defeated in the courts by players and coaches opposed to its limitations. Like the IPL the SA20 also has an auction where teams bid on players and subject a salary cap and restrictions on roster size. After
SECTION 10
#1732779797610852-467: A separate MLS Supplemental Draft . The division between the two was eliminated in 2000, when they were combined into a single MLS SuperDraft. Originally created to ensure strict parity in the league, the draft was designed to allow weaker clubs to develop their rosters. The first SuperDraft was held in 2000, and since then has become the primary draft of the league. Recently, the draft has been considered to be secondary to youth academies. The importance of
923-450: A team receives as a result of free agency (up to 32 compensatory selections are given each year), and any picks awarded for developing minority candidates for NFL head coaching or general manager positions (starting with the 2021 draft in accordance with NFL Resolution JC-2A). Teams are allowed to trade draft picks (including compensation picks since 2017) among each other in exchange for other draft picks or in exchange for players. Because
994-416: A team via a disaster draft , should an accident or other disaster kill or disable many players. Drafts are usually permitted under antitrust or restraint of trade laws because they are included in collective bargaining agreements between leagues and labor unions representing players. These agreements generally stipulate that after a certain number of seasons, a player whose contract has expired becomes
1065-401: A viable strategy to tank, as a second overall pick was still guaranteed. This was made evident in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft , where marquee prospects Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel were both seen as NHL-ready and likely to be stars; much speculation surrounded the struggling Buffalo Sabres , who allegedly tanked to secure the rights to at least the second overall pick (a charge that, although
1136-419: Is currently three rounds long with each of the 12 teams in the league (trades aside) making three picks each. Draft order for teams that made the playoffs the previous year are based on team records. The team with the highest previous record will pick last. Since eight teams qualify for playoffs , the bottom eight picks are determined by this method. For the remaining top four picks, a selection process similar to
1207-412: Is divided into three rounds in which each club has one selection. In addition to drafted players, MLS teams also acquire new players from their youth academies . These players are called homegrown players. Homegrown player are academy players who is given a first-team contract. They are required to have spent at least one year in a club's academy, and to have lived in the club's territory (for example, in
1278-440: Is free to solicit contract offers from other teams; however, this player cannot sign with the competing club if the current club matches (or in some leagues, comes within 10% of) the terms of the offered contract. For a restricted free agent, some leagues require the comp team to offer to the original team one or more draft picks, when an offer is not matched, as compensation for losing the player. Players who are not drafted in
1349-469: Is released from their club when the transfer window is closed, they cannot sign for another team until the window reopens. A notable case of this being Sol Campbell who in September 2009 was released from Notts County , just after a month from signing on a free transfer . He signed for his former club Arsenal in January 2010 during the winter transfer window, after spending a few months training with
1420-406: Is responsible for holding drafts prior to the commencement of each season. Teams can buy foreign players with international experience while they still can purchase Indian players with little or no experience. The Pakistan Super League uses a draft system for player recruitment before the start of every season to fairly distribute the league's new players. Teams are allotted slots in every round of
1491-529: The 2024 season . The first was a draft of college players , followed by a supplemental draft . The final draft of 2013 was a preseason waiver draft in which teams could select players who had been waived by their first squads, but only one player was selected at that time. The league held a college draft, referred to after 2021 simply as the NWSL Draft after the inclusion of non-collegiate selections, prior to each league season. The waiver draft, now called
SECTION 20
#17327797976101562-630: The MLS Supplemental Draft , in which all other players were chosen. The draft is divided into three rounds in which each club has a selection, the order of which is determined by a combination of the teams' playoff and regular season positions, with the last placed team (or expansion teams) getting the first pick. From 1996 to 1999, all American players graduating college were entered into the MLS College Draft , and were eligible to be selected by all Major League Soccer teams. Players who had already graduated from college were entered into
1633-617: The NFL draft but were not selected; they can sign with any team. Plan B free agency was a type of free agency that became active in the National Football League in February 1989 to 1992. Plan B free agency permitted all teams in the NFL to preserve limited rights of no more than 37 total players a season; if a player was a protected Plan B free agent, he was incapable of signing with another team without providing his old team
1704-628: The National Football League (NFL), where rookies enter directly into the NFL and do not play in a minor league system. It can also occasionally be seen in the National Hockey League (NHL), which increasingly uses college hockey as a source; the NHL entry draft usually drafts players of high school age (i.e., junior leagues ), which allows overlooked players who excel at the college level or in European professional leagues to bypass
1775-458: The Webster ruling allowed players the opportunity to move between nations, though it does not allow free players to move within the national league in which they currently play. A free agent bust is a highly touted or highly signed free agent who does not meet expectations. This can be for a variety of reasons such as being unable to adjust to the team's more demanding role, system or scheme of
1846-425: The "re-entry wire", has also become a permanent part of the league. The league also created other draft mechanisms to address other types of eligibility, such as the unsubsidized individual distribution ranking order introduced for college draft-ineligible NWSL federation players in 2016, and the under-18 entry list for domestic minors introduced in 2023. With league expansion and contraction since its establishment,
1917-670: The Grey Cup champion selecting last. As with the NFL Draft, trading of picks is very common, meaning that a team will not necessarily have eight picks in a given draft. The draft is restricted to Canadian citizens, plus non-citizens who were raised in Canada since childhood (see the relevant section of the main CFL article ). Eligible players can be drafted both from U Sports football programs in Canada and U.S. college football programs (with
1988-788: The KHL and its players introduced a draft, starting from the very first season of the league . It also allowed teams to use a first-round draft pick to select protected players from a team's farm system. The KHL Junior Draft was discontinued in 2016. A draft system is used for The Hundred , a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament in England and Wales run by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which started in 2021. The inaugural Hundred draft took place in October 2019. The Canadian Football League holds its annual player draft before
2059-554: The MLB draft takes place during the season instead of in the offseason. In December, MLB holds the much shorter Rule 5 draft . If an organization keeps a player in the minor leagues for a certain number of years, other teams can draft him in the Rule 5 draft. The drafting team must keep the player on its major league roster; it cannot put the player in its own minor leagues system. MLL implemented its first collegiate draft in 2001. The draft
2130-493: The NBA Draft Lottery is conducted for the four teams that did not qualify for the playoffs. The WWE Draft is used to refresh WWE 's Raw and SmackDown rosters, as well as shuffle talent between the two. Cricket 's Indian Premier League instead holds a yearly auction before the start of each season in which teams bid on players, subject to a salary cap and restrictions on roster size. Indian Super League
2201-477: The NBA, the NHL uses a lottery system to determine which team gets the top pick. All 16 teams, up from 15 between 2017 and 2021, that failed to qualify for the playoffs take part in the weighted lottery with the winner moving up to select first overall. Any North American player aged 18–20, and any overseas player aged 18–21 is eligible to be selected. Players are generally chosen from junior hockey teams, high schools,
MLS SuperDraft - Misplaced Pages Continue
2272-463: The NCAA and overseas clubs. The NHL rotates the draft's location among cities with teams in the league. Like baseball, players drafted in the entry draft usually have to wait a few years in development, either in junior hockey or the minor leagues, before cracking an NHL roster; usually, only one or two draft picks, generally, those that are widely predicted to be blue-chip superstars, jump directly from
2343-566: The NFL requires that players be three years removed from high school, and of the lack of an effective junior development system outside the college and university programs, players are chosen almost exclusively from National Collegiate Athletic Association college football programs. The NFL draft has become one of the key events on the American football calendar, airing live on television each April. In recent years it had been held at New York's Radio City Music Hall , but in 2015 and 2016 it
2414-453: The NWSL. In Major League Rugby , a player can be signed by any team as a free agent at 18 years old as long as they don't enroll in college. In case they do, they have to wait for MLR Draft at 21 years old. In some leagues, free agency has deadlines . For example, under the most recent NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement , restricted free agents who do not sign contracts by December 1 of
2485-473: The Sabres' fans openly encouraged it, the team officially denied). From the 2016 to 2020 drafts , the top three overall picks were subject to lottery among all fourteen teams that did not make the playoffs, meaning the last-place team will only be assured of the fourth overall pick, at which point virtually any marquee prospect will have already been selected. Since the 2021 draft , only two draws are held for
2556-661: The SuperDraft waned in the 2010s as MLS teams established their own youth academy systems and acquired young players from other leagues. The 2020 MLS SuperDraft was conducted exclusively by conference calls and online streaming for the first time. Only players from the American college sports system (e.g., the NCAA and the NAIA ) are eligible to be drafted. Canadian U Sports men's soccer players are not included, despite numerous proposals and discussions in 2010 and 2012 when U Sports
2627-416: The U.S. and Canada . Most professional football clubs and those in other sports obtain young players through transfers from smaller clubs or by developing youth players through their own academies. The youth system is operated directly by the teams themselves, who develop their players from childhood. Parity in these leagues is instead maintained through promotion and relegation , which automatically expels
2698-436: The age of unrestricted free agency declined from 31 to 27. Under the old collective agreement, which expired in 2004, draft picks were awarded as compensation when a team lost an unrestricted free agent; however, under the current CBA teams losing unrestricted free agents do not receive any compensation. In addition, any player at least 22 years of age who has not been selected in the NHL entry draft can sign with any team as
2769-584: The bottom of the AFL ladder will get the first draft picks. Also, any team that finishes in a low ladder position for consecutive seasons will receive priority picks. The AFL's National Draft is held in November, with a pre-season draft and a rookie draft held in December. The 1991 NSWRL season featured the introduction of rugby league football's first draft system. The draft allowed teams to recruit players on
2840-407: The case of Orlando City , northern Florida). The draft gives to the teams opportunity to acquire players from other regions of the country, from outside their territory. The teams can also acquire new players by signing players from other leagues (usually foreigner leagues). MLS has two transfer windows —the primary pre-season transfer window lasts three months from mid February until mid May, and
2911-537: The draft and sign directly with the NHL. In the European Union , the 1995 Bosman ruling by the European Court of Justice established the right of free agency for association football players in all EU member nations. The Bosman ruling has since been extended to cover other professional sports and players from Eastern Europe. Players were still tied to their clubs unless their contract ran out until
MLS SuperDraft - Misplaced Pages Continue
2982-420: The draft and slots can be exchanged with other teams. Free agent Free agency was severely restricted in many sports leagues, instead clubs had a reserve clause which allowed them to retain players indefinitely. In professional association football , a free agent is either a player that has been released by a professional association football club and now is no longer affiliated with any league, or
3053-574: The draft lasts 20 rounds (down from 40 in 2019 with the exception of a 5-round 2020 draft), but earlier drafts have lasted up to 100 rounds. The MLB Draft generally receives less attention than the drafts in other American sports, since drafted players usually spend several years in the minor leagues before they crack the Major League team's roster. Also, unlike the MLS, NFL, NBA and the NHL Drafts,
3124-405: The draft lottery is rigged. NBA teams choose players from the NCAA and from teams overseas. It was formerly common for players to be chosen directly from high school, but in 2006, the NBA required that players wait a year after high school before playing in the NBA. Almost all top U.S. players thus play at least one year in college. The NHL operates a seven-round off-season draft (224 picks). Like
3195-480: The draft to the NHL (e.g. Sidney Crosby or Jaromír Jágr ). The league has incrementally expanded the draft lottery process over the course of the early 2010s to discourage "tanking"—the act of deliberately losing to get a better draft pick. Historically, the league only subjected the first overall pick to the draft lottery among the five worst teams in the league, meaning that if a draft had more than one marquee prospect (a generally rare occurrence), it would still be
3266-435: The first opportunity to sign him again. The rest of the players were left unprotected, liberated to negotiate contracts with the rest of the teams in the league. Eight players sued the NFL in U.S. federal court, stating that Plan B was an unlawful restraint of trade. In 1992, a jury found that Plan B violated antitrust laws and awarded damages to these players. In the National Hockey League (NHL), between 2005 and 2008,
3337-518: The first two selections. Starting with the 2022 lottery , the team winning one of the two lotteries is only allowed to move up a maximum of ten spots in the draft order and teams will only be allowed to win the lottery twice in a five-year period. The three major junior leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League also hold drafts of teenage players in their territories. Major League Baseball holds two drafts each year. In June,
3408-418: The first-year player draft, MLB's entry draft, takes place. Only players from Canada, the U.S. or a U.S. territory may be drafted; players from elsewhere are free agents and can be signed by any team. Draftees are high-school graduates who have opted not to go to college; college baseball players at four-year institutions who have played three years or turned 21; or junior college baseball players. As of 2021,
3479-465: The latter category containing one Canadian school, Simon Fraser ). International players, which can compose up to half of a CFL team's roster, are not subject to a draft and enter the league by way of the negotiation list , a process that allows a CFL team to unilaterally stake claim to any international player on a first-come, first-served basis without the player's consent and bar them from negotiating with any other CFL team. This includes almost all of
3550-476: The league closer in line with global standards within the sport. The Premier Lacrosse League held its first collegiate draft in 2019, shortly before the start of its inaugural season. The WNBA draft is held every spring. It has had several locations during its history; the most recent draft in 2022 took place in New York City, following two drafts held virtually due to COVID-19 concerns. The draft
3621-615: The league has also irregularly held both expansion drafts to help stock the rosters of new teams, and a dispersal draft in which teams could select players from a defunct team . On August 22, 2024, the NWSL announced the elimination of its draft and discovery systems as part of its renegotiated collective bargaining agreement with the National Women's Soccer League Players Association . NWSL teams could pursue and sign any prospective collegiate and international players as free agents, transfers between NWSL teams would require player consent, and all contracts would become guaranteed, bringing
SECTION 50
#17327797976103692-501: The league's quarterbacks . In the inaugural 2018 Global T20 Canada a player draft was held for franchises to choose the players from the available pool. Draft order in the NFL is determined in a reverse-record order (the previous season's worst team picking first, the Super Bowl winner picking last). There are 7 rounds of the draft (a maximum of 224 picks), so each team can have 7 selections, plus whatever compensatory selections
3763-506: The league's perennial contenders. It was adopted by the precursor of the National Basketball Association in 1947; by the National Hockey League in 1963; and by Major League Baseball in 1965, although draft systems had been used in baseball since the 19th century. Major Indoor Lacrosse League ( National Lacrosse League ) adopted a collegiate draft in 1988, Major League Soccer in 2000, Major League Lacrosse in 2001, and Major League Rugby in 2020. Sports drafts are uncommon outside
3834-462: The league. It was also a result of the failure of country zoning , introduced in the late 1960s, which had led to a systematic inequality whereby the clubs with the best zones, like Carlton and Hawthorn , could dominate over clubs with poorer zones like Melbourne . In the AFL Draft, clubs receive picks based on the position in which they finish on the ladder. Therefore, the teams that finish at
3905-406: The lower divisions. Unrestricted free agents are players without a team. They have either been released from their club, had the term of their contract expire without a renewal, or were not chosen in a league's draft of amateur players. These people, generally speaking, are free to entertain offers from all other teams in the player's most recent league and elsewhere and to decide with whom to sign
3976-555: The main auction takes place there is then a rookie draft where each team has two minutes to pick one rookie player that is 18-22 years of age. The team that finished last place in the last season is the first to pick and the team that finished first in the last season is the last to pick. When the Russian Superleague became the Kontinental Hockey League , the collective bargaining agreement between
4047-431: The postseason draft, sometimes with a "lottery" factor to discourage teams from deliberately losing. Other types of drafts include the expansion draft , in which a new team selects players from other teams in the league, and the dispersal draft, in which a league's surviving teams select players from the roster of a newly defunct franchise. Major professional sports leagues also have special contingency plans for rebuilding
4118-440: The qualifying offer made to the player. Exclusive-rights free agents (ERFAs) are players with two or fewer seasons of service time and whose contracts have expired. If their team tenders a qualifying offer (a one-year contract usually at league-minimum salary) the player has no negotiating rights with other teams, and must either sign the tender with the team or sit out the season. Undrafted free agents are players eligible for
4189-519: The secondary mid season transfer window runs one month from early July to early August. Major League Rugby implemented its first collegiate draft in 2020 . Players are eligible for draft after 3 years in college at 21 years old. Free agents can try to join teams at 18 years old. Major League Wrestling held its first draft in 2021. NLL held its first collegiate draft in 1988 as Major Indoor Lacrosse League . The National Women's Soccer League used drafts from its inaugural 2013 season until
4260-556: The start of the season, either in the last days of April or the start of May. It was formerly held as part of the annual league meetings in Hamilton , but is now typically held by conference call with the first two rounds being broadcast live on TSN . Since 2016 , the draft has consisted of eight rounds, with teams drafting in inverse order of their records in the previous season, with the Grey Cup runner-up selecting second-to-last and
4331-588: The team or if their time with team was affected by injuries. In the NFL, numerous of notable highly touted free agents have signed with other teams, with the tenures being busts. One example is Larry Brown , most known from his two interception game which earned him a Super Bowl MVP award and championship in Super Bowl XXX , signed a five-year, $ 12.5 million free-agent deal with the Oakland Raiders . Brown played just 12 games with Oakland and then
SECTION 60
#17327797976104402-500: The team to maintain his fitness. The Australian Football League introduced free agency at the end of 2012, after having had a brief "ten-year rule" in 1973 (when it was known as the Victorian Football League). Out-of-contract players who are not within the top 25% paid players at their club will become unrestricted free agents after eight seasons of service at one club. Out-of-contract players who are within
4473-457: The top 25% paid players at their club become restricted free agents after eight seasons, then become unrestricted free agents after ten seasons. Clubs receive compensation in the form of draft picks for the loss of out-of-contract free agents, but players who are delisted become unrestricted free agents, regardless of length of service, and clubs are not compensated for the transfer of such free agents. The NFL's current free agency system
4544-399: The top pick to the worst team from the year before, the NBA holds a draft lottery to determine who chooses first. The top four picks are allocated by chance among the 14 teams that did not make the playoffs the year before. This discourages a team from losing on purpose to get a better draft pick, but also causes other controversies such as allegations and conspiracy theories suggesting that
4615-410: The top players entering the league that year. Players that pass through an entire draft (usually several rounds) without being selected by any of the league's teams become unrestricted free agents, and these players are sometimes identified simply as an undrafted free agent (UDFA) or undrafted sportsperson and are free to sign with any team they choose. The term "undrafted free agent" is most common in
4686-614: The weakest teams from a league in exchange for the strongest teams in the next lower league. In Australian rules football 's premier competition, the Australian Football League (AFL), a draft was introduced in 1986 when the competition was then known as the Victorian Football League (VFL). This was in response to the increasing transfer fees and player salaries at the time, which in combination with declining attendances, threatened to derail
4757-521: Was Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). In previous SuperDrafts, a few players were drafted directly from clubs outside the U.S. or Canada. The draft process for the SuperDraft closely resembles the NFL Draft . Below is the process for the 2023 MLS SuperDraft : Draft (sports) A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues ) to allocate certain players to teams. In
4828-779: Was held at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre , and in 2017 it was held on the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art . The 2018 draft was the first ever to be held at an NFL stadium, namely the Dallas Cowboys ' AT&T Stadium . The NBA Draft, held historically in an NBA city, but in recent drafts in either a theater in the New York area or at the Barclays Center each summer, is only two rounds long (60 picks). Instead of automatically granting
4899-571: Was held every year until MLL merged with the Premier Lacrosse League in December 2020, with the merged league operating under the PLL banner. Major League Soccer has two types of draft that occur each year, plus a third that is held intermittently when the league adds one or more teams . The two annual drafts are the three-round long MLS SuperDraft (a maximum of 81 picks since 2021, down from four rounds and 104 picks in 2020), which
4970-575: Was held for the first time in 2001, and MLS Supplemental Draft , with the MLS Expansion Draft held in the offseason immediately before the league expands. The MLS SuperDraft happens every January. During the draft the teams from the league will pick up to three players each from colleges across the United States. Only players from the American college sports system (e.g., the NCAA and the NAIA ) are eligible to be drafted. Canadian U Sports men's soccer players are not included. The draft
5041-435: Was introduced on March 1, 1993. Unrestricted free agents (UFAs) are players with expired contracts that have completed four or more accrued seasons of service. They are free to sign with any franchise. Restricted free agents (RFAs) are players who have three accrued seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. RFAs have received qualifying offers from their old clubs and are free to negotiate with any club until
#609390