Draft Picks and Changing the Draft Age to 19

[ck26]

Not a very good example considering both Marner and Reinhart spent their D+1 season in juniors, and Strome was just sent back to junior in his D+2 season...

All three got serious looks in the NHL during camp and had a chance to make the team. Regardless, whoever you want, man ... Chychrun, Matthews, Laine, Puljujarvi and Tkachuk are all doing it this year and McDavid, Eichel, Hanifin and Werenski played pro last year. That number is held down a bit by the cost/benefit of having a player on your NHL roster at 18 vs still having him under team control at 26/27. If UFA happened at 25 regardless, some of them could have played NHL at 18. Marner could have made that god-awful Leafs team last year, but he'd be less useful at 18 as he will be at 26, so the Leafs opted against it.

There should be a really compelling reason to deny a class of people the right to work and make a living, and "making life easier on the scouts" is not a really compelling reason.

 

[jason2020]

All three got serious looks in the NHL during camp and had a chance to make the team. Regardless, whoever you want, man ... Chychrun, Matthews, Laine, Puljujarvi and Tkachuk are all doing it this year and McDavid, Eichel, Hanifin and Werenski played pro last year. That number is held down a bit by the cost/benefit of having a player on your NHL roster at 18 vs still having him under team control at 26/27. If UFA happened at 25 regardless, some of them could have played NHL at 18.

There should be a really compelling reason to deny a class of people the right to work and make a living, and "making life easier on the scouts" is not a really compelling reason.

So a 14 year old say mom and dad I want to play hockey in Europe and give up school your fine with that.

 

[trick9]

I don't see this happening.

Hard to justify it right now when 18-year old is leading the NHL in goals. Also there would propably be lots of more movement from NA to Europe by kids who are either looking to cash in year or two early or think they are too good to play in the Juniors.

 

[ck26]

So a 14 year old say mom and dad I want to play hockey in Europe and give up school your fine with that.

I'm not sure how many 14 year olds play major junior hockey. Can't be many though.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I think that's the best middle-ground honestly.

Make it a 3 years transition, adding 4 months to the current draft eligibility dates every year.

I think the current date is 09/15. Players who are 18 years old on 09/15 in the year the draft occurs, are eligible.

 

[jason2020]

I'm not sure how many 14 year olds play major junior hockey. Can't be many though.

Major jr no but tier 2 there is a ton.

 

[Lempo]

This is an oft-repeated idea, yet I'm still waiting for a good example of a player that suffered in their development by playing another year of junior hockey?

Needlessly delayed perhaps more than suffered. What I said about brainy game was near-verbatim what Sebastian Aho told of his transfer to play with men in SM-Liiga. I do get the argument about keeping interesting players in North-American junior leagues, but the Draft as a show for the NA audiences *may* suffer from the European players possibly getting picked higher due to shown acumen in men's hockey.

This year's Top 5 may have been a deviation from the normal, BUT... I would argue that playing in Men's league pre-Draft does effect on the outcome.

add: And I don't think it effects only the Draft as a show but... well, Top Picks do get their semi-official ELC bonuses per the Draft position, for example. There's the prestige and marketability too. Moving the Draft a year later would mean more European players would have had at least a try in the men's game by the time of the Draft. When evaluated for the Drafting purposes the successful ones would tick the box for "able to transfer their play to grown-up league", which would still be a question-mark for their NA player peers playing in the junior leagues, to boost their ranking.

 

[ck26]

Major jr no but tier 2 there is a ton.

There are no 14 year olds in junior hockey. At least not without lying about their age. 14 year olds play bantams and midgets.

If when my son turns 14, he asks to play in Europe, I'll be incredibly confused. He doesn't play hockey.

If my 16 or 17 year old son was a top player in his age group and had been dominating midget AAA and played a year in the WHL and wanted to make some money, and he had a contract offer from a club in Sweden or Switzerland or Germany, they were offering salary, an apartment, visas for the family, etc ... we'd have a good long family meeting and consider it. Obviously not everyone would choose it, but it'd be a damn interesting offer ... especially if the alternative is living 10 hours away from the family in Rimouski, Quebec or Brandon, Manitoba ... and especially if a big pro hockey payday was still 2+ years away in North America.

 

[Slimmy]

So a 14 year old say mom and dad I want to play hockey in Europe and give up school your fine with that.

Why would they have to give up school?

 

[ck26]

Why would they have to give up school?

You guys have schools in Sweden now?

 

[Slimmy]

You guys have schools in Sweden now?

I believe there are..

 

[tempofound]

You guys have schools in Sweden now?

"Schools".

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Sooo why does this need to happen?
To help some teams with their scouting? But isn't that like, the point of competition?

 

[ManofSteel55]

Seems like something a team with crappy scouts would want if you ask me.

The CHL had better start paying these now uneligible 18 year olds like actual employees if this happens. It's b.s. to prevent legal adults from playing pro hockey if they are good enough to.

 

[ManofSteel55]

So a 14 year old say mom and dad I want to play hockey in Europe and give up school your fine with that.

If your 14 year old was good enough and mature enough to play pro hockey in Europe and those teams wanted him, you'd think they would find a way to get him schooling. Tutors, private teachers, etc. A lot of junior players live with billet families, they could do the same in Europe.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

This would help league parity. A lot of drafting "skill" is actually variance on hits from the 2nd round.

If the league did this they could probably cut the draft down to 5 or 6 rounds as well. Although that'd be a separate set of considerations.

Would this affect the quality of players going to the NCAA (and by extension JrA)?

 

[mouser]

Hey, NHL scouts. Get your **** together. This is actually MORE reason to keep the age young, because 18 year old future busts will get the "life benefit" or whatever of getting drafted, while the late bloomer who goes undrafted but catches on still has a go of it in the NHL. Two players benefit instead of just one.

Would this stupid idea survive an anti-trust lawsuit? If the NHL is subjectively giving out exemptions to "exceptional players" then what prevents someone just below that tier -- Dylan Strome, Mitch Marner, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart -- from suing the league to get an exemption themselves? You're denying a year of 6- or 7-figure income to an incredibly skilled worker in an incredibly dangerous field.

And which top kids wouldn't go to Europe? Why would you choose to make a stipend living in Brandon or Sudbury or Rouyn-Noranda when they could make a salary living in Hamburg or Zurich or Stockholm?

Absolutely, so long as it was bargained in the CBA. NBA and NFL don't let 18 year old players get drafted, and have won lawsuits brought by prospective players challenging that restriction.

I highly doubt the NHL would do an "exceptional" status--they don't want to get into a subjective evaluation process of who is or isn't exceptional. Most likely if there were any kind of exception it would be limited to draft round, e.g. 18 year olds can be drafted in the 1st round only.