So it seems the confusion about what new rule changes are in effect for the 2013 CHL Import Draft and which changes were still at the "proposal for the future" stage has been clarified.
- teams can only draft '93, '94, and '95 goaltenders in the first round tomorrow. No '96s. And after the first round is over, there will be no more import goaltenders drafted ever again. (Unless, you know, they change the rules again!).
That rule change has been previously widely reported. Two others hadn't:
- teams may not trade import picks. They may also not trade import players until one year after their drafting.
- teams who have an import player picked in the first round of the NHL draft will be allowed to select one more import in the next import draft, to cover against that first rounder sticking in the NHL.
The second of those lower two new rules will only affect one WHL team tomorrow and that's Everett, who had Mirco Mueller picked in the first round. The Silvertips already dropped Stathos Soumelidis earlier this summer and with Mueller being an NHL first rounder, the 'Tips can now draft two new players tomorrow.
That other rule though, the no-trading-picks one, that rule is going to really bone one WHL team tomorrow and that team is Seattle. The Thunderbirds have the 13th overall pick in the draft but they also already have two '94 imports on their team from last year - forwards Alexander Delnov and Roberts Lipsbergs. I doubt they want to drop either of those proven players but if they don't, then they can't use the #13 overall pick to draft a potentially bigger impact player.
Their one outlet, and I don't know if this applies to them yet or not, is that they drafted Delnov and Lipsbergs last year and so they may be able to trade one of them to another WHL team tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on what the CHL's definition of "one year after being drafted" is. Is it one exact calendar year to the date of their picking in the Import draft? If so, that date has passed and the Birds should be able to trade one of those players if they want.
The only other WHL team I see being affected by that rule is Portland, who have two '95 imports. But given that Portland's import pick sucks (last pick in the first round), I don't think it's a big deal for them to pass on that pick and keep the two guys they got.
All other WHL teams have room to add at least one and maybe two new imports and so they can all use their first and sometimes second round picks as normal.
11 comments:
Not being able to trade picks makes no sense. I realize they are trying to keep the playing field level by not allowing the good (read: rich) teams to move up. But the teams trading away the pick are compensated and there is still the limit of 2 so it's not like they can be stockpiled.
Both Portland imports are 95's. Bjorkstrand and Vorobiev. I dunno much bout the Russian d-man so dunno if he has potential or not but if Portland did make a pick and released him, I think they'd still be able to get a good player with their connections.
I don't mind them not allowing the trading of import picks, it should make the draft more about evenly distributing talent, rather than just pooling it all on the richer teams. I actually wish the WHL would adopt one of the rules that the OHL uses with their priority selection draft, and not allow WHL teams to trade their first round selections, or the player they select with it for one year.
I believe this would (eventually) drop the insane prices that the management in the WHL are asking for the use of their elite players for two months, and put the WHL on more of an even playing field when they are assembling a team for a Memorial Cup run.
Re: Portland....brain fart when I said they were '94s. Sorry.
As for Vorobyev, Travis Green did speak highly of him last year, so I think his lack of playing time had more to do with their depth on the blueline ahead of him (Jones, Pouliot, Wotherspoon, Rutkowski, Hanson) than with his abilities. Three or four of those guys are gone now and Vorobyev has a year in the CHL under his belt so I think he will get a bigger role this year. I expect to see Portland pass on their pick.
SectionN - I don't see how this helps with the even distribution of talent. This draft has always been about who you know and how much you might be willing to pay to get a player, and not about the best player being picked first. All that is going to happen now is that the best players are going to get picked 40th, 50th overall because that's where the good teams willing to pay for them are picking. The small market teams not willing to pay those prices will simply pick inferior players with their higher picks. It'll end up with the same result there has always been, only now those poorer teams can't even trade their high Import picks to get good North American players or draft picks to help level the playing field.
IMO the new rules won't affect the top clubs at all and are terrible rules that hurt the smaller clubs.
It makes total sense to implement a rule where you can't trade draft picks in a draft where other teams have already traded draft picks.
Alan, when you say pay for an international player do you mean something similar to soccer where they pay the player's team for his rights?
Picks that had been traded prior to the implementing of the new rule were honored, which is why some picks in this draft had already been traded. We shouldn't see any traded picks in next year's draft though.
As for payment, there is a standard IIHF player transfer fee between federations that must be paid, yes. That is the only OFFICIAL fee to get these players.
Some players have contracts with club teams in Europe though and those teams often demand payments to allow the player out of the contract. Plus the legality of some of these "contracts" signed, sometimes under duress, with 16 or 17 year old kids is dubious. CHL teams are not supposed to be making these payments but who knows what goes on in back rooms and under the table. This is certainly an area where a team with deep pockets could have an edge over a poorer team.
Alan, do you have a ballpark figure of how much some teams are paying the KHL or Swedish clubs?? Looking at the past decade, I would think a club like London or Quebec must be paying a huge amount for quality Europeans!
And after seeing what Portland was sanctioned with from a financial audit, how can these funds get transferred without any team getting caught?
Jon - I don't know what the amounts might be. Depending on the quality of the player, I would guess between the high five figures and low six figures in most cases. Just guessing here though.
To my knowledge there has not been a proven case of a CHL team paying those demands. Some cases just look suspicious though - one that comes to mind is from the last few years and saw a high-end Russian prospect drafted at 17 by a WHL team. He didn't come over at 17. He was dropped and picked up by another WHL team a year later. Didn't come over at 18 for that team either, even after he was made a high 2nd round pick by the NHL.
That WHL team dropped him too and the next summer he was drafted by a QMJHL team. Presto, he is in their lineup as a 19 year old.
All above-board? Possibly, but it sure looks suspicious, doesn't it.
As for how you would hide these payments on your balance sheet.....I am not an accountant so I couldn't say for sure. I would guess you could hide it in some other expenses that you just don't seem to have proper receipts for.....but that's not going to pass an audit if you had one. So I guess I have no idea. :)
Maybe some accountants out there could helpvus figure out how that could be done....
Alan - thanks for the reply and info. I'm not an accountant either... my only guess would be that perhaps a family member or friend of the owner (or maybe the owner himself) is making these payments from a personal account that is separate from the hockey club's books.
Unless of course the CHL is okay with teams paying whatever amount the European clubs demand.
The CHL never seems to comment on its Import Draft eh?
Gregg Drinnan had an interesting note on the Import Draft...
From Matthew Gourlie (@Matt Gourlie) of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald: “I'm not saying the CHL Import Draft is rigged, but... Niagara pick Alex Mikulovich has had his team listed as Niagara on twitter for days.”
The OHL’s Niagara IceDogs selected Mikulovich in the second round of yesterday’s CHL import draft.
One question on the rule change Allan;
The tips already have Mirco Mueller as a special import and they don't have to drop himor add him to the 50 man list until after his NHL tryout in September.
So they draft Waltteri Hopponen and Ivan Nikolishin in anticipation of Mieller leaving, or, ust because they can.
What happens if the two draft picks show up to camp and begin playing with Everett in September and then Mieller gets re-assigned to Everett from his NHL team?
Can Everett now trade one of the yung draft picks, or is one of those guys S.O.L. and gets put on a plane back to Europe?
WHS - if both new guys report AND Mueller comes back, the Silvertips will have only two options in the fall:
1) trade Mueller to another WHL team (I don't see this happening)
2) release one of the new guys
It sucks for the new kid who gets released but that's the way it works now with the new rules forbidding the trading of imports for one year.
The released player would go on WHL waivers though and might still be picked up by another team so it wouldn't necessarily mean an automatic plane ticket back to Europe for him. If nobody else wants him though (ie, nobody else with import openings or unhappy with their 2 imports) then yes, his stay in North America would have been brief.
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