Why is Alexis Lafrenière’s draft eligible year 2020 instead of 2019?

Daximus

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Oct 11, 2014
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There's been talk of actually increasing the age for draft eligible players to 19 or 20. I can't see the NHL ever making it less.
 
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mazmin

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May 15, 2004
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I like the exceptional status idea for the NHL draft. I think it should run like this:

1. The player must apply only if his birthday is within the same year as his draft group IE Sept 16 - Dec 31st
2. He then must apply to the league.
3. The league will have a basic criteria to use before giving a decision
4. The league decides yes or no
5. Whatever the decision, the HFboards go bonkers
 

StoneHands

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Why would they allow a 17 year old to play in the NHL? America is the land of the lawsuit. Can you imagine if Lefreniere was running his mouth and got his teeth punched out as a minor by some 30 year old vet?
 

haveandare

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Jul 2, 2009
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Eh, I think it's better to keep it a hard rule. If he's ready for the NHL now, which I kind of doubt honestly, he'll likely be ready to be an impact player right off the bat. That's pretty rare and good for the league, when a talked up rookie comes in and lives up to the hype. I'd rather that than force them in at 17 when they might be decent or passable but not ready to be game changers yet.
 

Gold Standard

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The only change to the rule that would make some sense would be if said player were to turn 18 1st. week of October. i.e. by the start of the NHL season. And the player would have to prove he's clearly an exceptional-generational talent. And In both cases Lafreniere fails to meet that standard. I just don't see the guy as an exceptional generational talent, but just your average run of the mill projected #1OA draft pick. If he were that exceptional generational talent, then 9 out of 10 scouts wouldn't have J. Hughes as the projected #1OA pick if Lafreniere were in this draft class with the rest of his '01 birth year.

I'm in favor of keeping the rule as is, Sept. 15 cut off. If you are not 18 by the time training camp opens, then too bad. wait a year.

He's playing today, so another 4 pt. game would be nice.
 
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Mickey Marner

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Good luck with that. Hockey Canada owns his transfer card and those kids sign basically 4 year commitments to the junior team that drafts him, unless they go to the NHL. The CHL will never let a highly touted kid from Canada who is playing for them go over to Europe without a lawsuit. Which could destroy his season anyway if he can't get locked into staying by Hockey Canada getting an injunction.

Also, to play in the NLA, an import must be 18 years or older. Matthews barely made the cut. Lafreniere wouldn't. Not sure about age restrictions on other Euro leagues.
 

Teemu

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Why is Alex Ovechkins’s draft eligible year 2004 instead of 2003?
Fun fact: The Panthers actually *did* try drafting him in 2003 because they claimed that, due to leap years, enough days had passed to make him draft eligible. The NHL pretty much just rolled their eyes as expected.
 

BillNy

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Fun fact: The Panthers actually *did* try drafting him in 2003 because they claimed that, due to leap years, enough days had passed to make him draft eligible. The NHL pretty much just rolled their eyes as expected.

They tried this because Pat Quinn did this w/ Pavel Bure once and it worked.
 

LoveHateLeafs

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They tried this because Pat Quinn did this w/ Pavel Bure once and it worked.
No, Bure was 18 years old on Sept. 15 1989. The uncertainty regarding Bure's eligibility came from the fact that the rules were extremely complicated at the time and changed depending on where the drafted player came from. Bure could have been drafted in the first three rounds of the 1989 draft and that would have fine, as long as he was selected in the first three rounds. However, when the 1989 entry draft took place, the Soviet Union had yet to fall, and no team was willing to gamble such a high pick on a player whom the Soviets might not allow to leave. At this point, some other Eastern Bloc players had defected, but that's a pretty tough decision for a young man to make, especially when he knows that the Soviet government could make life miserable for any family left behind.

Luckily for the Canucks, there was some weird rule that said that an 18-year-old Soviet player could be taken after the third round, so long as he had played at least 11 games for his Soviet Championship League team in each of the previous two seasons. The official records seemed to indicate that Bure hadn't met this requirement, but the Canucks scouting staff found evidence of extra games that no one else uncovered(remember this was pre-Internet). Even then, it took nearly a year for the NHL to finally accept that Vancouver's Bure pick was in fact legal.
 
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LoveHateLeafs

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Why would they allow a 17 year old to play in the NHL? America is the land of the lawsuit. Can you imagine if Lefreniere was running his mouth and got his teeth punched out as a minor by some 30 year old vet?
That makes sense. I always understood that the Sept 15 cut off was so they'd be 18 when training camps started. On the other hand, don't most NHL teams hold prospect development camps in July or August? So it's within the realm of possibility that you could have a just-drafted, still 17-year-old, prospect in a camp with players who are 22 or so.
 

Number 57

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I agree with having to be legal adult to play in the NHL (18 yrs old)

The problem is junior leagues go with birth year (not cutoff date) to esblish their groups which means for exemple players born 2002 were eligible for the 2018 QMJHL draft, making them ''16 years olds'' in the eyes of junior leagues. There is no cutoff date. So someone born on December 31st 2002 is playing in the QMHL right now, meaning he is still only 15 years old and playing against guys who can be up to 21 years old.

All players born in 2002 have always played together and followed each other, but all of a sudden for the NHL draft, if you're born September 14 you're in, but if you're born two days later, you're out. You have to wait for the following year. Seems a bit weird.
 

StoneHands

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That makes sense. I always understood that the Sept 15 cut off was so they'd be 18 when training camps started. On the other hand, don't most NHL teams hold prospect development camps in July or August? So it's within the realm of possibility that you could have a just-drafted, still 17-year-old, prospect in a camp with players who are 22 or so.
I guess they just have to have a cutoff date somewhere and it's before actual NHL preseason games start to make sure they aren't getting into serious legal trouble throwing a 17 year old out there against 30 year old vets trying to make a roster by doing whatever they need to do, including tuning up some cocky kid. There has to be a hard line drawn at some point. You can't allow some kids born in late September and not others. That would again bring up lawsuits because you're essentially taking hundreds of thousands of dollars out of a players pocket if you don't allow them to enter the draft and sign an NHL contract. Can you imagine the outrage if a team like Pittsburgh or Edmonton was able to draft another generational talent because of a special status and a team like Arizona relocated a few years later because they missed out on a player that could have saved their franchise? Who would determine which players get special treatment and who doesn't? Does it go by previous season stats? That doesn't always determine how good of a prospect someone is. Is it height and weight? That doesn't always mean much at all.

I think they have it right, you pick a date that the NHL and the Players Association agree to and you hold strong. Players and teams know years in advance when players will be eligible for the draft and you plan accordingly.
 

tmg

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One of the major reason's why the draft age should be moved to 19.... Surely will be talked about for the Next CBA, naturally the NHLPA will right it tooth and nail tho...

Pretty sure the PA wouldn't be all that vehemently opposed.

The PA's mandate is making things better for its membership. Making things better for people who aren't NHLPA members (yet) and allowing such people to push for limited jobs and threaten the continued employment of people who are presently NHLPA members ... goes against their mandate.
 

McMetal

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The cutoff date has to be sometime. If you moved it to October 15th, some other player down the line will be born on October 17th and we'll have this whole debate over again. There will always be late and early birthdays no matter what the date is for the draft year.
 

biturbo19

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I mean, it's an obvious answer that is very clearly outlined in the rules.

It does kinda raise the question of whether pulling an "Auston Matthews" might be something for Lafreniere to look at though. ie. Going to play his "draft year" in a men's Pro league over in Switzerland or something, if he does indeed look "ready" and is looking for a bigger challenge and better preparation for the NHL in 2020. That'd be interesting. Since Matthews, it wouldn't be totally unprecedented now.
 

kroypuck

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I mean, it's an obvious answer that is very clearly outlined in the rules.

It does kinda raise the question of whether pulling an "Auston Matthews" might be something for Lafreniere to look at though. ie. Going to play his "draft year" in a men's Pro league over in Switzerland or something, if he does indeed look "ready" and is looking for a bigger challenge and better preparation for the NHL in 2020. That'd be interesting. Since Matthews, it wouldn't be totally unprecedented now.

CHL will still have his rights, so that won't be an option. I am unsure if a buyout would be a possibility, although I'm sure if the number was right they would. Matthews was a unique situation in that players are only signed for 2 year contracts at NTDP. It is unlikely that we see a player take his route in the near future.
 

biturbo19

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CHL will still have his rights, so that won't be an option. I am unsure if a buyout would be a possibility, although I'm sure if the number was right they would. Matthews was a unique situation in that players are only signed for 2 year contracts at NTDP. It is unlikely that we see a player take his route in the near future.

He can't play in the AHL obviously, but Everett owned Auston Matthews "rights" in the CHL (via the bantam draft)...and he still waltzed over to play pro in Switzerland. So far as i understand, it's an NHL-CHL transfer agreement (that obviously encompasses AHL, ECHL under it's umbrella). But CHL players go back to Europe all the time, before their CHL eligibility runs out. Just typically not North American born ones...where Lafreniere would be a bit of a trailblazer i think?

Maybe i'm missing something in the convoluted series of transfer agreements, but i don't see why Lafreniere going Pro in the NLA or something would be prohibited. It'd just be...weird? I'd bet dollars to donuts it's a moot point and he never even tests the theory so it probably never comes up. But it's an interesting thing to think about, if he happens to completely dominate this year and looks like he has nothing left to prove in the Q...yet has an entire extra year there due to his birthdate.
 

Gold Standard

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He can't play in the AHL obviously, but Everett owned Auston Matthews "rights" in the CHL (via the bantam draft)...and he still waltzed over to play pro in Switzerland. So far as i understand, it's an NHL-CHL transfer agreement (that obviously encompasses AHL, ECHL under it's umbrella). But CHL players go back to Europe all the time, before their CHL eligibility runs out. Just typically not North American born ones...where Lafreniere would be a bit of a trailblazer i think?

Maybe i'm missing something in the convoluted series of transfer agreements, but i don't see why Lafreniere going Pro in the NLA or something would be prohibited. It'd just be...weird? I'd bet dollars to donuts it's a moot point and he never even tests the theory so it probably never comes up. But it's an interesting thing to think about, if he happens to completely dominate this year and looks like he has nothing left to prove in the Q...yet has an entire extra year there due to his birthdate.

a team picking a player in a bantam draft means nothing if the player doesn't sign an agreement/contract to play with that club. He could have waltzed to Europe with a brief stopover in Everett to pick up a cappuccino and a few bagels if he wanted.

If Rimouski wants to enforce the agreement Lafreniere signed with the team, then Alexis won't be waltzing anywhere but to a QMJHL rink near you until he turns NHL pro. And that's just the way it is.

And judging by how Lafreniere has started the season, it doesn't appear to me that he's ready to play against the pros anywhere in any league, not the NHL or Europe.
 

biturbo19

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a team picking a player in a bantam draft means nothing if the player doesn't sign an agreement/contract to play with that club. He could have waltzed to Europe with a brief stopover in Everett to pick up a cappuccino and a few bagels if he wanted.

If Rimouski wants to enforce the agreement Lafreniere signed with the team, then Alexis won't be waltzing anywhere but to a QMJHL rink near you until he turns NHL pro. And that's just the way it is.

And judging by how Lafreniere has started the season, it doesn't appear to me that he's ready to play against the pros anywhere in any league, not the NHL or Europe.

Like i said, it's probably is a moot point. But if we're looking at a different situation where he's looking "NHL ready" at the end of the year, staring down the barrel of another QMJHL season...i'd be interested to see how that would be enforced. It'd seemingly have to be through an association of the NHL-CHL agreement with the separate NHL-IIHF transfer agreement, which seems...complicated, since it's not the CHL directly with the Euro leagues...where they have their own agreements and import rules. Hockey Canada is part of the IIHF, but the CHL itself is a "partner" of Hockey Canada rather than a member. And the NHL isn't going to blackball a player like Lafreniere for leaving the CHL hanging, if it somehow hinged on that agreement.

Honestly, it gets so convoluted i have no idea if he'd actually be able to do it or not. Really though, it's not going to happen. If Tavares wasn't gonna do it, Lafreniere isn't either...and it's really just a "what if" musing. But Matthews opened a door to unconventional draft paths for top prospects. :dunno:
 

Gold Standard

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Like i said, it's probably is a moot point. But if we're looking at a different situation where he's looking "NHL ready" at the end of the year, staring down the barrel of another QMJHL season...i'd be interested to see how that would be enforced. It'd seemingly have to be through an association of the NHL-CHL agreement with the separate NHL-IIHF transfer agreement, which seems...complicated, since it's not the CHL directly with the Euro leagues...where they have their own agreements and import rules. Hockey Canada is part of the IIHF, but the CHL itself is a "partner" of Hockey Canada rather than a member. And the NHL isn't going to blackball a player like Lafreniere for leaving the CHL hanging, if it somehow hinged on that agreement.

Honestly, it gets so convoluted i have no idea if he'd actually be able to do it or not. Really though, it's not going to happen. If Tavares wasn't gonna do it, Lafreniere isn't either...and it's really just a "what if" musing. But Matthews opened a door to unconventional draft paths for top prospects. :dunno:


There is no NHL-CHL-NHL-IIHF agreement which applies in Lafreniere's case. No NHL team holds his rights. He has an enforceable standard players contract with a QMJHL club and Hockey Canada holds his transfer card, So, without the mutual agreement of the 3 parties involved, Alexis, RIM and Hockey Canada, he isn't going anywhere.
 
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biturbo19

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There is no NHL-CHL-NHL-IIHF agreement which applies in Lafreniere's case. No NHL team holds his rights. He has an enforceable standard players contract with a QMJHL club and Hockey Canada holds his transfer card, So, without the mutual agreement of the 3 parties involved, Alexis, RIM and Hockey Canada, he isn't going anywhere.

Do we know Lafreniere has an SPC that extends through next year?
 

Gold Standard

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Do we know Lafreniere has an SPC that extends through next year?

A SPC in the CHL signed at 16 years of age is for 4 years. The only out for the player before the 4 years is up is to the NHL team that drafts the player. So, in Lafreniere's case he does have an enforceable SPC for next year and the year after. He'll be in the Q as an 18 year old, but as a 19 year old, he'll be plying his trade with the NHL club that drafts him.
 

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