Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp
Sounds you want players to become indentured servants to the teams that draft them. It also sounds like sour grapes on your part.
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Not at all. If they don't want to sign with the NHL team that drafted them, then they can refuse - just they should have to wait another year to be drafted again and not be able to sign with another NHL team right away. They are perfectly free to choose not to sign. The consequences are that they can't play for another NHL team until next season.
That is how it is with FAs. It should be like the situation with Nabokov. He left he NHL and signed with Detroit but the Islanders got his rights via waiver. He could have came back to the NHL but didn't honor those rights and so he was forced to remain in Europe.
There should be a draft waiver in that case as well.
The issue is that the player has all the leverage in this case. He could keep the drafting team on a string until the 11th hour hoping that the ticking clock desperation to sign would give him more bargaining power. If he didn't get signed he would just get drafted again at a higher position (Erixon's development has shown improvement) and the accolades and monetary bonuses that come with that. Or he could do what happened in this case where there was already a contract waiting for him at the Rangers.