mouser
Business of Hockey
He's 19, he'll be 20 in November.
If it's always two years than why is Kuznetsov still a Cap?
There's currently no transfer agreement between the NHL and KHL. When there's no transfer agreement with a league outside North America that a player was drafted from then the NHL typically extends the teams' rights to that player in perpetuity. There are some complex rules in the CBA about these players eventually being able to become UFA's, but in practice I don't think that happens with any desirable prospects. I imagine the NHL's reasoning behind this is that because there is no transfer agreement, then there is no guarantee that a team even has the opportunity to sign a player that may already be under a multi-year contract in another unaffiliated league.
Also, btw, the new 2012 CBA changed the draft rights so that players age 18 or 19 drafted from outside North America now have their rights held for 4 years instead of the prior 2 years. Though this went into effect with the 2013 draft and was not applied retroactively to earlier drafts. Players drafted at age 20+ continue to be held for 2 years.