we are seeing a sea change in the league regarding teams trying to take back control of player development and the "when," of their access to a player. there used to be something of an honor system in place with heavy influence from agents in alignment with nhl executives to sign where you were drafted when you were told to sign with not a lot of deviation from the norm. the NCAA was a rarely chosen option for top prospects because it was considered a much more physical grind playing with grown men and investing a lot in 30-40 games whereas CHL kids got a few seasons of 70 games to do their thing without the academics. times have changed considerably. now that the NCAA is allowed to financially recruit players in the wide open, the CHL is losing relevance and power aside from the opportunity to play competitively from 15-16 where NCAA bound players don't really get that experience unless they can make the development team. but the reward, so to speak, for the NCAA kids is that they're insulated to a degree from bad situations. the financial reality is that a lot of these kids don't need their ELC money right away. so if they can burn a year of NCAA hockey in their draft season, they are 2-3 years away from picking their spot and have that leverage in negotiations. all the while they're still being paid and living like kings on campus. as much as the kids love it, the parents love it even more because it's closer to traditional and the kids still get to come home in the summer and on holidays and the games being on the weekends, etc. still partially insulated from the realities of the NHL world and lifestyle.
the european talent has a bit of the same flavor with drafted kids not being in any hurry or being pressured by their home clubs to sign lengthy deals. our respective situations with morrow and nikishin of having what we might feel are 2 nhl ready potential stars we can't access is a motivator to approach these players about signing as soon as they're receptive to it. that way, we can move them around the way the organization wants. the interesting deviation that our ownership is taking is trying to really establish the russian pipeline to create a comfort level here. it's a really interesting strategy.
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