Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
Has a Jr player ever done it?
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Eric Lindros. Obviously, he had enough value that Quebec was able to trade him before he could re-enter the draft, but it's not really any different.
If a player is good enough, the drafting team should be able to trade him to a team he's willing to sign with rather than losing him for nothing. The player benefits from the arrangement because he doesn't risk getting drafted by another team he has no interest in. It's basically what happened with Erixon.
It's actually surprising that more junior players don't refuse to sign with the team that drafted them to force a trade since it's only a 2 year wait and a relatively small number of players are actually good enough to play in the NHL within those first 2 years. Of course, some players do get traded within the first 2 years of their draft, so it's possible that some of them did refuse to sign so the team quietly moved them and we just didn't hear about it.