Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
The risk isn't so much with the highly drafted college/university players as most are close enough to NHL ready that they will sign sooner rather than later.
The risk is with the one who aren't ready to go pro and need more seasoning at their current level. There comes a point for some that there is a bigger benefit for becoming a free agent.
It should be quite obvious to anyone that drafting an NCAA player comes with a bigger risk than drafting a CHL player.
If the NHL can have different rules for how the rights of European players are held. I don't see why they can't for NCAA players. The fact it never seems to come up as an issue with the BoG tells me that the owners don't care enough about it.
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This is the problem with it. With the list TC pointed out, I'll bet teams had conversations with those players futures on their team before drafting and had a pretty good idea that these guys were interested in playing for their team.
However, the players that need/choose development are your wildcard drafts. Those are also very exciting players to draft! Good players developing in other leagues is crucial to long-term success - and a player developing in the NCAA carrying the risk of peacing out can't be ideal.
A rule in some way shape of form covering this solves the problem immediately. Going NCAA? Rules of signing that NCAA player are different, so instead x-years are committed to the team that drafted you if you want to play in the NHL. Solved.