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Official 2016 NHL Draft Thread

tfahs said:
Is Roslovic eligible for the OHL next year after playing a year at Miami? So you can go from NCAA to the OHL, but you can't go from the OHL to NCAA???
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Warren Foegele, who we drafted #67 overall in 2014 played a full season as a freshman at New Hampshire and 5 games as a sophomore before leaving and joining Kingston in the OHL for the rest of the season.
 
tfahs said:
Is Roslovic eligible for the OHL next year after playing a year at Miami? So you can go from NCAA to the OHL, but you can't go from the OHL to NCAA???
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Apparently Roslovic will first get a crack at making the Jets or their AHL farm team, if both of those are a no go, the Knights acquired his OHL rights via a conditional trade with Flint and he is likely headed to London. Roslovic shares the same agent as current Knight JJ Piccinich and is good friends with Matthew Thachuk so the London connection is there.

Roslovic is the third guy off that big 3 line from the US Development roster that also consisted of Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk.
 
Roslovic and his agent/handlers played this whole situation perfectly. By going to college to start and signing an NHL entry level contract after dropping out of school he comes with a full set of options....NHL, AHL, OHL...he can be assigned anywhere (even as a 19 year old). Of course the Jets are not going to burn a year of Roslovic's entry level contract if he's not NHL ready so expect that he ends up in the OHL to allow his entry level deal to slide if he is not NHL ready right away. These kids coming out of the NCAA after their freshman year who were also drafted by a CHL team come with multiple possibilities. Hanifin was actually in the same boat last year, although he had never signed an agreement with QMJHL Quebec (not necessary since the Canes had effectively committed from the start to keep him in the NHL all season).
 
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On the topic of the CHL and eligibility of these kids to play in different leagues....here is something I don't think we really spent any time talking about after the draft. We've talked about the NHL CHL transfer agreement and how that impacts whether or not one of our recent CHL draft picks needs to be sent back to their Canada Major Juniors team and when they become eligible to play in the AHL. Basically the key thing to know is that a player cannot play in the AHL until they have used up their CHL underage junior eligibility (which for most players is 4 years). You are no longer an underage junior if you will turn 20 before Dec 31st. For the easiest example, Jake Bean has played 2 years in the WHL, so he cannot be kept by the Canes and assigned to the AHL for the next 2 seasons as he has 2 years of junior eligibility left. Julien Gauthier, who just missed the age cutoff to be eligible for the 2015 draft, has already played 3 full seasons in the QMJHL. Thinking ahead, come NEXT season, even though he will be just one year removed from his draft season, should Gauthier end up back in the QMJHL this season, he will have used up his underage junior eligibility both having played 4 years of CHL hockey and because he turns 20 by Dec 31st, 2017. That means that for the 17-18 season, the Canes can assign Gauthier to the AHL if they want to OR if they feel he will be better served and Val d'Or has room to take him back as an overage Junior player, he could be sent back to the QMJHL for one more season (allowing his entry contract signed as an 18 year old to slide one more year assuming of course he doesn't play 10 or more NHL games).

At some point this season this topic/question concerning Gauthier and his eligibility to play in the AHL next season will likely come up (Chip might even figure this out as something useful to bring up and report on it at some point). CHL players with birthdays between Sept 16 and Dec 31st (aka Late birthdays) who end up having to wait an extra year to be drafted can end up in this situation. I don't remember the last time this has come up with a Canes draft pick, at least not one where you will be thinking about whether or not he is very close to NHL ready a year after his draft. Gauthier might be the first Canes 1st of 2nd round pick in this category

----edit my memory just stinks! Zack Boychuk was the last Canes high round pick that fell into this category, Andrew Ladd also had a late birthday. Both returned to juniors for just one more season after being drafted and then played pro (NHL and AHL) the season after, which I suspect is exactly what the Canes will do with Gauthier. Bottom line is that you likely won't have to wait long for Gauthier to be with the Canes or Charlotte. If he fails to make the Canes this season he most likely will end up with the Canes or Charlotte next season. --- end edit---

Your useless CBA/CHL transfer agreement fact of the day :thumbup:
 
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That is a useful piece of CHL/NHL agreement trivia right there, cmaleski. Haven't seen that late-birthday option explained elsewhere.

Nice to know that the AHL might be an option for the '17-'18 season instead of being faced with a NHL or back to juniors, like this year's decision will have to be.
 
I don't understand why the CHL gets to stand in the way of young players moving up in the Pro Leagues. Has this been challenged in court?
 
CHL does not force the NHL to do anything. The NHL agreed to that rule but they can change it in the future.

Just like the NBA rule about drafting kids only after 1 year post high school. NCAA has nothing to do with that rule.

Baseball does not draft kids in college until 3 years of school. Of course they can also sign kids right out of high school.
 
Its in the NHL's best interest to keep the Canada happy.....the CHL is like a religion in Canada, the strength of those leagues is very important and robbing these leagues of all of their star power right at the point where these kids are at the sweet spot of their CHL careers would be devastating to the CHL teams.

While it might be frustrating at times that players only have an NHL or CHL option because of this agreement, it allows NHL teams to avoid burning years off of entry level contracts for players who are not ready for prime time. Mitch Marner was way too good for the OHL last year, but considering where the Leafs were in their rebuild it would have done the Leafs no good having Marner around in the NHL or AHL and have a year burned off his entry level deal. I think this transfer agreement helps the NHL as much as it helps the CHL. I highly doubt that the NHL will want to change it. If a kid is ready for the NHL he can play in the NHL. If he's not ready for the NHL, do you really want to waste a low pay entry level season for the kid to skate in the AHL? If I'm a GM I would rather ship the kid back to juniors and delay the start of his contract. I suspect some GMs would rather waste the entry level deal season, so consider this rule the NHL trying to protect the NHL teams from themselves in some cases.

I've seen some discussions where the idea of an 'exception' to the agreement would allow NHL teams to send CHL junior eligible players to the AHL if they want to but with strict limits set. I don't think that is in the NHL's best interest and its definitely not in the CHL's best interest. I would be very surprised to see the NHL/CHL transfer agreement modified from how its setup now. Yeah it may be frustrating in certain sitations, but many of these kids actually get BETTER playing in the CHL as 18 and 19 year olds and are then close to ready to go when they hit the NHL as a 20 year old. Haydn Fleury I think is a perfect example of that. CHL got to keep him 2 more years, Canes get a him with a much more mature game and frame and still have 3 years on his entry level deal. Win for CHL, Win for the Canes, Win for Fleury (his chances of making NHL money instead of AHL money during his entry level deal went up). Plus a kid like Fleury has pocketed all of his $255k in signing bonus money already despite playing on the WHL for 2 more season and not playing a game yet as a pro. Its not a bad deal for these kids either.
 
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I can also play devil's advocate and argue the other side that if Fleury had played one of the last two seasons in the AHL he might have been NHL ready the next year and the Canes would have the player with the big club that much sooner. So, yeah, I'd like to see an exception made in the transfer agreement for special cases. I'm not saying RF would have done this with Fleury, but maybe he would with Gauthier if he had the chance.
 
JFG said:
I can also play devil's advocate and argue the other side that if Fleury had played one of the last two seasons in the AHL he might have been NHL ready the next year and the Canes would have the player with the big club that much sooner. So, yeah, I'd like to see an exception made in the transfer agreement for special cases. I'm not saying RF would have done this with Fleury, but maybe he would with Gauthier if he had the chance.
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I agree it's a bit crazy to send some players back for another year of Junior when they truly have nothing much left to gain for their future development...such is the case for a player like Mitch Marner for the Leafs. Marner going back to the OHL so he can score 200 points against the likes of 17 year old kids seems to be silly...yet his body and size currently may not be ready for the rigors of an 82 game NHL schedule. Let a guy like that play in the AHL...give each team one exception to the rule to allow one prospect to play at the AHL level if has already played X number of years in junior hockey.
 
people are bigger and faster at 18 than they were 30 or more years ago. That's why the NBA allowed kids to skip college and now only require 1 year post high school. NFL is different since those guys are all so big you don't want an 18 or 19 year old there. (or course college kids are about the same size now anyway)
 
Small sample set, but here are Janne Kuokkanen's (2nd round, #43 overall, 2016 draft) game-by-game stats after two London Knights (OHL) games:

2 GP, 3 G, 2A, 5 points, +3, 5 SOG, 15/22 (68%) FOW

I particularly like the "2 shots, 2 goals" aspect of his first regular season major junior game.

So far, so good. :thumbsup(22):
 
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