Nobody ever explained how this was the case though... There's something missing. There were several other candidates who slid for 2 years and were exempt from selection.
Andersson burning his contract this year will have acquired 2 full years of pro experience on 7/1/2020. He wouldn't be eligible for selection anyways.
OK, so this gets pretty wonky. According to the CBA, a player is 20 if he turns 20 before December 31st of the year in which the season begins. So, even if he's 19 on September 16 (technical start of the season), he's considered 20 for the purposes of that season. The CBA also purposefully states that 18 and 19 year old players accrue a pro season when they play 10 NHL games, whereas players 20 and older accrue a pro season after playing 10
professional games. Professional games are defined as essentially anything played under a Standard Player Contract, so that applies to AHL games, ECHL games, and I'm pretty sure games in European leagues a player has been loaned too (since that still falls under the terms of the contract). It's that distinction between NHL and professional games that's at issue here. Andersson turned 20 in October, so he falls under the professional games standard.
Meanwhile, an 18-year-old is someone who is 18 on September 15th and a 19-year old is someone who is 19 on September 15th. The only thing that matters for slides is what age a player is when they signed the contract. Andersson signed his contract in July 2017 and didn't turn 19 until October. So that means he is eligible for two slides, regardless of his age. Chytil was *also* considered to be 18 since he would turn 18 on September 5th.
Basically, it isn't so much that the CBA applies two sets of standards to what counts as an accrued season and what counts as a slide so much as the CBA applying a different definition of what makes someone 18 or 19 vs what makes someone 20. Does any of that make sense?