With Tortora, did it start with him not reporting and the awarding of a compensation pick from the league though?
Yes. Tortora wouldn’t sign with Barrie. His rights were dealt to Kitchener and Barrie was awarded a comp pick the following year.
A couple years later, Tortora wished to play in the OHL but only for Barrie citing his wish to play for Dale Hawerchuk. So the Rangers dealt his rights back to Barrie.
Exactly. The spirit of that rule is specifically so players aren’t rented. AKA Player “A” goes to Team “B” for a Championship run and then the same player is traded back to the original team for their Championship run. Essentially renting a player. If this Hage scenario happens then this isn’t a situation where a player is rented. It is a situation where a team has fraudulently seized a draft pick that is specifically designed to compensate a team for losing the player, not delaying the player reporting.
You cannot have situations presented in every law or rule that specifically applies. In other words, you cannot think of every possible loophole and address it. The Rue Book would be 14,000 pages! However, the League has the power to DENY any trade. In this case, it would be beyond obvious that a team swindled a compensation pick out of the League and the other 18 teams not involved would be outraged. The League would need to figure it out. I would be shocked if the League allowed that trade with that timing.
Sure there’s the loss of a player. Hage was traded to Sudbury, hence the comp pick. What Sudbury does with his rights after the fact is their choice.
Hage wouldn’t be “gifted” back to Kitchener. The Rangers would have to pay a price to get Hage back. Perhaps a return of the comp picks x 2.
When the dust settles, the Rangers have Hage
at 17 years old at a comparable Fantilli price and Sudbury is happy earning a package of picks without actually giving up much to begin with.
Let’s go back to 2010. Mississauga made out like bandits via Ebert/Rychel. They traded defected player Ebert to Windsor for a package of picks and were awarded a compensation 1st rounder the following year. Then, they traded for Kerby Rychel from Barrie. This all went down on the SAME DAY! yet they were still awarded the comp pick the following year even though they were never really without a 1st rounder. The Rangers, on the other hand, will be without a 1st rounder for 13+ months.
But Missy was in pretty much in the same position that I suggest could happen with a Hage back to Kitchener deal.
Missy: 1st rounder Rychel (who they gave up assets for) plus 2x1sts the following year.
Rangers: 1st rounder Hage (who they’d give up assets for) plus 2x1sts the following year.
The only difference is that there was a third team involved in that case. At the end of the day, Missy was able to have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. Was there outcry there? Maybe. But no rules were broken. And if it was such a bad thing, wouldn’t they have changed the rules / closed the loophole back then?
Dave Branch is all about getting the best players possible into this league. They’ve changed the rules over the years to ensure that that happens. The last thing Dave Branch is going to do is veto a legal trade that would bring Hage into his league only to watch him go the NCAA route.
If Hage decides he wants to play in the OHL, and states he’ll only play for Kitchener, there’s nothing standing in the way of Sudbury trading his rights back to Kitchener once 13 months have passed.
No rules broken. No sanctions.
