Recently for the first time in my long VHL career I hit the open market and well it was a disapointment as I have been on the other side of the coin as a GM and the experience was more enjoyable on the other side, even if I didn't end up with the player.
It started off with no PMs right at 12:01 am of discussion day, which I usually tried to send as a GM, not a huge deal but I was hoping for one. Then came my first PM the next morning at 10 am and it was very sub-par as it was a question of would I sign there instead of an attempt to sign Sundberg.
I only received 3 more PMs from GMs after that and one came from Toronto which didn't need to come because I knew what the plan was moving forward. So out of the 10 teams I had received 4 PMs and only one had a pitch to join them, that being Seattle .
Davos of course was a lets talk on chat cause it was easier and those discussion lasted a couple of hours which lead to me feeling that Davos was the right fit.
Seattle I didn't hear from again but players from Seattle made a very good attempt on behalf of the franchise telling me to sign with them, how much winning we do and fun we would have. In the end just didn't get a good feeling from them and cut them out of the 3 teams I was choosing from (SEA, DAV, TOR)
When it came time to make my decision to sign with Davos it was tough but it was made a lot easier but the lack of effort I got from most the GMs in the VHL. A lot had to with some teams not having any cap room but there were some teams I was interested in that just didn't feel like putting in the effort.
I'd rather be traded but I got to experience free agency and now I never have to do it again.