Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
You still hold a college player's rights as long or longer than any other player you draft.
A CHL player can refuse to sign with you and re-enter the draft after two years. If he goes undrafted the second time around, he becomes a free agent right away. If he gets drafted again, it's another two years, but he can reach full free agency by refusing to sign for four years.
European players and college players who leave school before their senior year are also held for four years, and those college players who play their senior year are an extra two and a half months.
Because a college player's rights are tied directly to his graduating class, teams can even hold a player's rights for more than 4 years. Boston drafted a goalie in 2010 who is now the starter at the University of North Dakota. He played two years in the USHL before going to college, so he could go back for his senior year next season, and the Bruins would apparently still hold his rights until August 15, 2016...more than 6 years after he was drafted.
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The difference is with CHL players you can sign the player at any time during those two years and he doesn't lose his junior eligibility so the window is far longer. With college players, he can't continue at college and must go pro. This is a problem created by the American college system and their phony two faced amateur rules. Any NHL rule change to make this a more level playing field is fine with me.