McKenzie: NHL wants to go older in draft

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HockeyCritter

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Wouldn't it be illigal to prevent a 18 y/o to play in the NHL?

Not if it's written in the CBA. . . . football has a rule limiting the age of players entering the NFL (three years after your high school graduation year I believe).
 

Mess

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EroCaps said:
:biglaugh:

Genius.

Hockey players are drafted way too early to begin with.

I would applaud this idea.
Would you still have applauded this idea if it happened last year and Ovechkin was not available .. ??
 

usiel

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lol, how could one even answer that question.

I've always thought it was ridiculous trying to draft 18 year olds in hockey. My 2c is that it would be much better if the draft age was 19 or even 20 though they might have an easier go with getting 19 as the age limit.
 

Mr Sakich

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IMO, this is one of those common sense ideas like widenning the blue lines. It can make a major impact without radically altering our game. The small market / rebuilding teams will benefit greatly from this idea. If the new cba has salary restrictions for the first 5 years, teams can be competitive by drafting well and maintaining control over their salaries.

This also reduces the value of UFA players. If a 20 year can come in and play right now under severe salary restrictions, teams will migrate towards those players instead of building through UFA.

It would also make for interesting discussions around here if we had to predict where guys wold have been drafted if the teams could have waited an extra 2 years.
 

DuklaNation

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I think changing it from 19 would be ideal. Solves the current draft problem and only 1 18year old per year actually can contribute something meaningful in the NHL anyways.
 

CGG

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It might make sense, but there's still the problem of not letting an 18-year old play in the NHL. Be it Crosby or some other phenom that comes along and is ready at that age. Court cases in the NFL might not have worked, but some lawyer trying to make a name for himself might have more luck fighting the age restriction in the NHL. Especially in Canada, where case law might be different. CBA or no CBA, I can't see any other union or company preventing 18-year olds from working. A legal adult 18-year old is restricted from earning a living, which is all kinds of wrong from a legal standpoint.

Anyone remember Lindros was all set to play in the NHL as a 17-year old for a season, then go into the draft? Didn't happen, but it could have.
 

Flukeshot

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That is pretty much the same debate the OHL just had on whether to allow drafting some 14 y/o early on because of that kid Tavares. Sure there are some special few players good enough to play OHL hockey early, just as there are perhaps a few players good enough to play in the NHL at 18 but the risk outweights the benefits. Recent examples like Nash and Kovalchuk make it hard to argue that they don't have a place in the NHL at their age, but so what if they wait just one more season, I don't think it would damage their development.

But look at a guy like Brent Burns. His career stats Minnesota drafted him and he was not even close to a point per game player in the OHL, though he is more defensive. But still he came to the NHL in his first year and only got 6pts in 36 games. And now Minnesota is using him as a defenseman while playing with the Aeros. His development could be quite hurt or at least delayed. He likely should have stuck it out in the OHL for another season or two.

So for each year you miss out on seeing an elite like Nash, you will miss more seasons of quality play by guys like Burns. And it wasn't too long ago people thought Vincent Lecavalier might be a bust because he put up low numbers for TB in his 1st year.
 

Monty

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This is the perfect time for them to raise the age of eligibility for a player to be eligible to be drafted. Do it in any other year and the worst teams in the league would have a reasonable gripe that it deprived them of X or Y potential teenage phenom because now those players would not be available in the draft. But there are no last place or near last place finishing teams in the league without a season and so no team can gripe, even the teams that most likely would have finished last or near last place (which IMO would have included mine).

Moreover, as McKenzie and some members have noted, it eliminates the ongoing argument about how to come up with a lottery and draft order system for determining who gets Crosby and other top draftees. With Crosby out of the draft and possibly other teenagers predicted to be drafted early in the first round, it will likely turn what has been described as a strong draft class into an average to weak draft class (depending on which and how many teenagers are ruled ineligible by age).

Sure next season (if there is one) will still have the possibility of teams tanking to get Crosby or another top player, but that is always a possibility, in a full season it is a lot more painful for a team and its fans to stink it up for a whole year, and if the CBA includes a salary minimum as well as cap, it may be more difficult for teams to try to finish last.

Yes, the NHL and its fans would have to wait for another year for Crosby, but I do not think that would have a significant impact on the NHL's likely efforts to promote itself next year and try to improve its image. Some say that Crosby would generate a lot of fan interest, and I do not doubt that, but I would think the vast majority of that interest would come from existing NHL fans - like you and I who write on these boards. Most non-fans have never even heard of Crosby and more likely than not will not pay any heed until the next Gretzky - whether that be Crosby or some future player - actually becomes Gretzky-like. And it is unlikely that Crosby will be truly Gretzky-like in his first year in the league as a teenager.

I would be all for this modification to the draft system.
 

kdb209

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gc2005 said:
It might make sense, but there's still the problem of not letting an 18-year old play in the NHL. Be it Crosby or some other phenom that comes along and is ready at that age. Court cases in the NFL might not have worked, but some lawyer trying to make a name for himself might have more luck fighting the age restriction in the NHL. Especially in Canada, where case law might be different. CBA or no CBA, I can't see any other union or company preventing 18-year olds from working. A legal adult 18-year old is restricted from earning a living, which is all kinds of wrong from a legal standpoint.

It's pretty clear that at least in the US courts the matter was pretty much settled in Clarett v NFL. I seriously doubt that you find a lawyer willing to try it again. First, you would need a plaintiff, someone who was damaged by the increase in draft age, so you are limited to an 18 yo potential draftee. Second, by the time the case worked its way through the courts, it would be irrelevant to that player - it would take well over a year. Look at the timeline of the Clarrett case. And given the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Clarett, there is no way there will be a preliminary injunction. So a Lawyer (and Player) will have to decide to spend a lot of time and $'s on a case likely to lose where even if they win it will only benefit future players.
 
I really think the solution is to make the first 3 rounds for players who turn 18 by september 30th of the year they are drafted, and rounds 4-9 players who turn 19 by October 31st of the draft year. Add a lowering of the AHL age to match (19 by Octeber 31st) and you have a viable system, imo.

You still leave the door open for your phenoms to enter the league at 18 (which is a *good* thing), but on the flip side you don't have to worry about teams throwing away draft picks on 18 year olds in the 9th round that no one has a *clue* if they are NHL material or not.

I posted this a while ago as part of a CBA proposal, but here is my ideal entry level system:

III. Entry level system

Entry level contracts will be 4-year mandatory two-way contracts, regardless of entry-level player's age. A player's rights will belong to the original drafting team indefinitely until his first NHL contract is signed (at which time he will be subject to free agency rules). A player can never "re-enter" the draft.

In order to be elligible for the draft players drafted in the first 3 rounds must reach 18 years of age by September 30th of the year in which they are drafted. Players drafted in subsequent rounds must reach age 19 by October 31st of the year in which they are drafted.

Maximum Base Salary structure
1st Round Maximum base salary: $850,000
2nd Round Maximum base salary: $750,000
3rd Round Maximum base salary: $650,000
4th-6th Round Maximum base salary: $550,000
7th-9th Round Maximum base salary: $450,000

Signing and performance bonuses
Maximum signing bonus (Entry-Level): $850k total
Maximum performance bonuses (Entry-Level): $425k/contract year signed, $75k/bonus achieved (+)
(+ Entry level performance bonuses to follow NHL approved schedule http://nhlcbanews.com/news/attachment_a020205.html)

Exemption from waivers
Waiver elligibility will be uniform, both for pre-season waiver draft and in-season waiver claims. Only players under an entry-level contract will be exempt from waivers and only if they have played fewer than 60 NHL games (20 for goalies) at the time they are sent down or left unprotected.
 
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