Quote:
Originally Posted by Macindoc
How long will it be until the pre-draft agent involvement and player demands make the draft irrelevant, and all players are UFAs until they sign a contract with someone?
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It'll never get to that point and if it gets sillier, which is doubtful, the NHL will introduce higher compensation picks. Even baseball, where players negotiate a signing bonus and very much tell teams not to draft them, the draft is still relevant. If a team likes a player enough, they'll almost always draft him. Millions of dollars in lost earnings is rather motivating.
Personally, I appreciate a player telling Calgary he doesn't want to be drafted by them. If a star player doesn't want to play in Calgary, he likely will pull a Tkachuk and bounce as soon as he can so this avoids that.