Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
If a drafted College player leaves school prior to the start of his senior year, his drafting team holds his rights until June 1, four years after his draft. Once a player starts play in his senior year, the date changes to August 15 following the completion of his senior year.
In Gaudreau's case, technically, he could become a free agent on June 1, 2015, but that would require him to leave college prior to the start of his senior year (so, before September 2014) and choosing to not sign with the Flames and just taking a year off (if he went to Russia, the Flames would declare him a defected player, which would extend his rights until he turned 27).
That is an extremely unlikely scenario, so realistically, the earliest he can become a free agent is August 15, 2015 (possibly the 16th, I'm not sure if the 15th is the last day the team holds his rights, or if it's the first day he'd be a UFA).
If it does come to that, the Flames will still have four months warning and can work out a trade with a team that he's willing to sign with. As long as he didn't give the Flames a list of just one team that he'd be willing to sign with, they could still get a bidding war going and something decent in return for his rights.
Of course, this is all needless hand wringing for something that isn't even a potential problem for two years, and for which there has been zero indication there will be a problem.
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That's what I thought, thank you.
So in reality, some Flames fans don't fear Johnny will pull a "Schultz" on us (because he can't), but rather that he might pull a "Corban Knight" on us.
That's the worst case scenario, and in that instance the Flames would probably at least be able to snag a pick for his rights. Personally, I'm not worried that it will happen though. I think he will happily sign with us when he decides to turn pro.