Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - NHL considering moving up the draft age to 19

Jay Random · 03-05-2016, 09:06 PM

The NHL tried this once before and were sued over it. I believe the court ruled that it was illegal age discrimination to keep 18-year-olds out of the draft.

As I recall, they tried to comply with the ruling by having some kind of deal where you could only draft 18-year-olds in the first three rounds, and the players had to specifically opt in. Of course all the 18-year-olds opted in, and the only result was to increase the amount of paperwork involved, so they scrapped the whole idea and went back to an 18-year-old draft.

I can't see the idea faring much better this time around.

03-05-2016, 09:06 PM	#11
Jay Random Franchise Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Exp:	The NHL tried this once before and were sued over it. I believe the court ruled that it was illegal age discrimination to keep 18-year-olds out of the draft. As I recall, they tried to comply with the ruling by having some kind of deal where you could only draft 18-year-olds in the first three rounds, and the players had to specifically opt in. Of course all the 18-year-olds opted in, and the only result was to increase the amount of paperwork involved, so they scrapped the whole idea and went back to an 18-year-old draft. I can't see the idea faring much better this time around. __________________ WARNING: The preceding message may not have been processed in a sarcasm-free facility.