MLE

[mattlanta]

Can someone please explain to me thoroughly what an MLE is? I don't get it. I'm pretty sure it stands for Mid Level Exception, but that's just about it in terms of knowing anything about it for me.

[Diesel]

Quote:

---

Can someone please explain to me thoroughly what an MLE is? I don't get it. I'm pretty sure it stands for Mid Level Exception, but that's just about it in terms of knowing anything about it for me.

Teams are not allowed to be over the salary cap, unless they are using one of these exceptions:

MID-LEVEL SALARY EXCEPTION -- This exception allows a team to sign any free agent to a contract equal to the average salary, even if they are over the cap (see question number 24 for the definition of "average salary." Also note that for 2005-06 they used a defined figure of $5 million). This exception may be split and given to multiple players. It may be used for contracts of up to five years in length, and raises are limited to 8% of the salary in the first year of the contract. Signing a player to a multi-year contract does not affect a team's ability to use this exception every year. For example, a team can sign a player to a five-year contract using this exception and still use the exception the following year to sign another player. Also see question number 20 for more information on the availability and use of this exception.

If the player is a restricted free agent with one or two years of service and receives an offer sheet from a new team, the player's prior team may use the Mid-Level exception to match the offer sheet (see question number 36 for restricted free agency).

Here are the actual values of this exception for each season. Note that since this exception is based on the average player salary, the actual value of this exception is not determined until the start of the free agent signing period.

2005-06

$5 million

2006-07

$5.215 million

2007-08

$5.356 million

IN short, it's a way for a team that is over the cap to still be competitive in signing free agents. (1).