Well, in that case, there is no precedent, except to say there are at least two examples where the NHL has treated a selected player as being where he was when he was selected (e.g. in that original conference), and ignored where he was by the time the game came around. But even this I find suspect; he was up and down from the AHL while he was a member of the Coyotes, too, and there was no indication he wouldn't be able to play because of it before this trade.
Regardless of the reason they choose to give, they still have to declare him ineligible to play, which is an inherently arbitrary decision.
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