[GranteedEV]

There certainly is an NCAA problem. It's not the fact that the rule is exclusive for NCAA players, but rather the fact that college degrees happen to take four years to complete, which is added incentive for NCAA players to wait out until UFA. Players in Europe or the CHL are already pretty playing hockey for a living and the next logical step for them a year or two following their draft is to turn pro in North America.


For NCAA players, that option often doesn't exist in the same capacity because it usually means postponing their degrees (and in Ivy League schools, this may be more significant, as I don't believe those schools offer the same flexibility to complete a degree afterwards). The logical solution to this issue is to allow a team to elect to extend the team rights to a fifth year instead of four (perhaps at a cost, like increased ELC salary?). It would allow teams to ENCOURAGE players to get their 4 year degrees while having the fallback that should a player wish to go the UFA route, they have to have a dead year either playing hockey elsewhere (i.e. Europe) or doing something else. It still keeps the spirit of the "players can be UFAs if teams don't sign them soon after their draft" rule intact, but doesn't put the college system at odds with the NHL.

Guys like Schultz, Hayes, Vesey, Fox, Hickey etc wouldn't be able to bypass the draft solely by focusing on their post secondary education. They'd still be able to do so if they really wanted to go UFA, but just have to spend a year after completing their degrees doing something besides play in the NHL.

I think that's very fair, and I'm not just saying that because the Flames have been burned.

Remember, Russian players are considered "defected" and have their rights held by the drafting team until they are 27 - there's already precedent of unique situations.