They should just make it so that 1st round picks (out of the CHL) have the option to go straight to AHL. Out of 32 picks every year, maybe 4 or 5 of them are really ready to do that (Outside of straight to NHL types). Of those 4 or 5, 1 or 2 would be CHL guys so I wouldn’t buy a “well there’d be a mass exodus of talent” argument either from owners/GM's.
2015: Strome, Marner, Provorov
2016: Tkachuk, Dubois
2017: Glass, Ramussen
2018: Hayton (but only for 19/20 season not this past one)
A simple change. A couple players a year.
I think teams would love to have their prospects playing against men and would love to move as many 18 and 19 year olds as they can to the A.
Look at what we did with zadina. With the luxury of hindsight I have a hard time believing he was “too good” for the CHL but we still had him in the A. You don’t think other teams would do similar things?