MS said:
A lot of these European guys will be 'huge steals' in the eyes of fans until June of 2007 when most of them go back into the draft, still unsigned. Outside of stud prospects picked in the first round or two, hardly any Europeans come over to NA until they're 22-23 and are established in their domestic leagues. Under the old system, that was fine ... teams just kept their rights. Under the new system, most of these Euros picked in the mid-late rounds will just end up going back into the draft because they aren't ready to sign and come over yet. And there isn't really any incentive for them to - they'll get the same contract from some team whenever they're ready.
Two points.
First of all there was no need to sign them within two years for the reasons that you stated. They had a place to play and further their development. If they have to be signed earlier now, then they will be. I don't think there's anything preventing them from being signed and then continuing to play in Europe if they don't end up playing in the AHL.
Secondly, the point is THAT THEY WERE SELECTED. If they were going to be picked anyway, then they should've been selected in the appropriate range and not allowed to drop as far as they did. Some teams such as Ottawa ignored the "Europhobia." They've done a great job of drafting Euros in the past, but this year the teams as a whole gift-wrapped a lot of their picks for them. Round after round they must have been shocked to see players still left on the boards
that should've been selected earlier.
Let me give an example of what I see as faulty drafting.
Go to hockeydb.com and look at the draft over the past 10-15 years. The scouts have pretty much nailed the CHL defencemen who look to have NHL potential. They have plenty of exposure and you can analyze them to death. If you don't draft one within the first 60-75 picks, you're unlikely to get an NHLer (I also found it interesting that d-men, unlike forwards, are often not even given the benefit of a cup-of-coffee at the NHL level.)
In a year of Europhobia, take a gamble on the falling Euros beyond the 60-75 range if the alternative choice is a CHL defenceman.
I'll be interested to see in half-a-dozen years how the Euros selected beyond this
range stack up with the CHL d-men taken in this same range.