Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
Just imagine being a kid who decides he wants to finish his Harvard Education after being in school for 15 years and getting hated on for it. Ha.
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Despite what the player might "say" in these situations, I'd wager it rarely has anything to do with finishing the degree. And not because I don't actually believe the degree might not be important to these players / kids, or even that the degree isn't valuable. It's that IMO it doesn't make sense not to sign right away IF and that's a big IF, you think it's the best move for your hockey career.
The players that don't sign, don't sign because they believe their best financial / long term career move is to hold out. The players that are convinced they will get their best monetary deal both short and long term if they wait and go UFA. It rarely has anything to do with "finishing" a degree, even as valuable as a Harvard one, because there is nothing stopping these players from returning to Harvard at a later even just a few years later to finish that degree if their hockey career doesn't work out. The value of those contracts some of these kids will sign, is far more valuable than the covered tuition and board they might get from a scholarship, that the math doesn't back up forgoing a year of pro hockey pay to "get your degree", they can pay for it themselves after and still be ahead money wise. It's about maximizing your first NHL pay day, and potentially optimizing your situation (thus maximizing career earnings) by controlling where you play, not about finishing school like they'd have you believe.
For the record, I have no issue with them doing it, although if I were the owners I'd try to carve off this loop hole for college players in an upcoming collective.