Does it ever become a point of contention behind closed doors if say a college coach demotes a guy down a line or gives him less playing time? I guess the option of offering an ELC is available to the NHL team's staff that wants a firmer grip on developmental details. A lot of my curiosity around the process is admittedly not knowing a whole lot about it.
Yes. Garth Snow openly criticized Kyle Okposo's college coach, Don Lucia, for not caring about his players future career potential. Snow had drafted several Minnesota players and was very frustrated with the poor results.
I think this is why the NHL has roles like "Director of Player Development", which are probably underappreciated. As I understand it, those roles are on the road a lot, meeting up with prospects. Some teams have bigger travel budgets, though.
One thing the Islanders did well under Snow was the whole prospect camp and after practice team bonding activities. I'm curious if people from other boards, like Sidney the Kidney, know how common this is. But every year prospects get to go to a Mets game and do some other fun stuff. Building that kind of tradition is easy but I somehow suspect it isn't universal yet.