Finally, somebody associated with the WHL has confirmed the David Musil story. There is a press release on the Giants website right now.
Vague on the details (which the WHL had eventually better confirm and expound on!!!) but at least nobody's keeping this secret anymore.
7 comments:
Curious. If he is moving to Canada and will not be an import, does that mean he could suit up for Canada and a future international event? Or is it the U-18 tourny where you cement your nationality?
He is BORN in the Czech Republic, he is a Czech player, and already played for the Czech's at international events.
Not being an import doesn't mean you are a Canadian or American citizen.
Eligibility for the WHL is determined by your place of residence. In order to be eligible to play in the WHL as a non-import, a player's parents must live full-time within the WHL's boundaries.
Players who play as imports do so because their parents don't live in North America. In the case of Musil, the family moved to B.C. and thus he's no longer in an import situation because his parents live within the WHL boundaries now.
If he had never played for the Czech Republic internationally, then eventually David Musil would be eligible to play for Canada....but it's moot because he has already played for the Czechs at the U-18s last year and thus under IIHF rules, the Czech Republic is the only country he is allowed to play for now.
Thanks for staying on top of this - Here's my question : If Musil's family lives in the WHL area, then why wasn't any team allowed to put him on their PPL list? According to eurohockey.net he was born on 9 April 1993 so his WHL draft year has passed and if he was a North American he could be put on anyones PPL list... and I thought I had seen somewhere that the player had to live in North America 1 year to be consider a North American but I can't find that...
Marty - that's the million dollar question that I'd like to see the WHL answer. Basically, why was this player treated differently than any other player? Why did we have a draft for Musil and not for anyone else?
In theory, as soon as his family took up residence in B.C., any team in the WHL should have been able to try and list him. If more than one team tries to list him in the given time period (I think it's 24 hours? Or 48 hours?), then the lower-ranked team based on last season's points should get him.
In this case, assuming the move was widely known in hockey circles, you'd probably see all 22 teams file a claim. But that shouldn't change the process....the worst 08-09 team should get him and he'd be a Moose Jaw Warrior today.
So, this is what I'd like to see the WHL explain. Are there different rules for some players? If so, what are the rules....because I haven't found anyone who seems to know them. If there are, that's fine, but I think they should make fans aware of them.
He was born in Canada, according to the release on the WHL site:
"Born in Edmonton, Musil and his family have recently moved back to the Vancouver area, which made David eligible to play in the WHL this season."
Therefore he is probably a Canadian citizen and eligible to play for Canada. It's all a moot point anyway, Brett Hull being a case in point.
Ah, good catch. He's probably a dual Canadian-Czech citizen then. Being born in Canada would have given him Canadian citizenship unless he has done away with it since then. No reason to do that though.
As far as his international career goes, as you said, it doesn't matter. He has played for the Czechs at an IIHF event and under IIHF rules, he can't change countries now.
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