CdnSailor
10-18-2011, 04:04 PM
Exceptions would have to be made for gifted athletes
By John MacKinnon, Edmonton Journal October 18, 2011
For all the right reasons, Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson has suggested the NHL make its annual entry draft a harvest of 19-year-old talents, not 18-year-olds.
There's little doubt that sort of change would rationalize the entire hockey system, permitting midget teams to hold onto their best players for another year, allowing young talents one more year to polish their games in major junior, letting all sorts of European players remain home for another season in their formative years.
Nicholson is serious about plumping for this change, so much so he prepared a nine-page position paper on it and sent it to NHL headquarters.
"For the most part, 18-and 19-year-old players are not close to being ready for the NHL. If the draft goes back a year, it slows down the process at every level," Nicholson told Eric Francis of Sun Media. "Right now, everyone is on a treadmill to get there."
Nicholson studied the draft data for the last six years, which showed 56% of all Canadians drafted in the 2005 draft haven't played one NHL game. Overall, 88% of Canadians drafted at 18 don't play in the NHL before age 20 and only six per cent play in the NHL the year they're drafted.
Nicholson would include an exceptional player clause to permit the truly gifted athlete from being forced to remain in junior when another year could just as easily mean stagnation, not development.
It's a good thing, too, because there is quite a cluster of teenage virtuosos at work in the NHL early this season. Which suggests that if, as a rule, players are better off not being too impatient to depart junior hockey, many who do are clearly ready to play in the NHL, and play well.
Edmonton fans are giddy about 18-year-old Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, of course, and they were even before he scored his first NHL hat-trick on Saturday night in the Oilers' loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
At least, the official scoresheets say it was a three-goal effort for the slick young Nugent-Hopkins. There are those out there in the puckosphere who have been fussing over replays of the third goal like it's hockey's Zapruder film. Taylor Hall, not Nugent-Hopkins, they maintain with stiff-necked seriousness, really scored the goal.
The most grimly self-absorbed of these are muttering dark thoughts about a mythmaking conspiracy at work, from the referee, who pointed to Nugent-Hopkins immediately after he signalled it was a goal, to the Oilers padding the rookie's stats in Game 3 of his first season, to the mainstream media, always happier to write the legend instead of the truth.
Oh my, the Twitter conversation reads like a bad movie script, as if the conspiratorial misfits from Oliver Stone's JFK had just discovered hockey. It's hilarious, in a weird sort of way.
Anyway, as for the age change, the truth is that youngsters in a variety of cities are lighting it up, suggesting, at a minimum, that exceptional player rule would have to be written carefully, should Nicholson's push for an older draft gain momentum in the NHL.
In New Jersey, the buzz has been about Adam Larsson, the allaround defenceman many thought the Oilers should draft instead of Nugent-Hopkins, given their obvious issues on their back end.
Few teams in the NHL are more development conscious than Lou Lamoriello's Devils, but some early chatter from New Jersey suggested Larsson was on the way to establishing himself as the club's top defenceman until a foot injury put him on the sidelines temporarily.
In Colorado, youngsters Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog have helped the Avalanche sprint off to a 5-1 record. When the 18-yearold Landeskog, the No. 2 pick behind Nugent-Hopkins last June, scored his first of the season the other night, he also became the youngest Swede ever to score an NHL goal.
Landeskog played for the Ontario Hockey League's Kitchener Rangers last year, so if the Nicholson rule already were in place, that would work to the benefit of Kitchener, not the Swedish Elite League, where many of Landeskog's countrymen, like the Oilers' Anton Lander, honed their talent before leaving the homeland. Lander's all-around game had been polished for three seasons in the Swedish league before he arrived, seemingly ready to play in all situations, with the Oilers.
The Avalanche have Landeskog playing on a dynamite third line with Ryan O'Reilly and Daniel Winnik, so it's not as if he has been asked to carry the team as a rookie.
For that matter, neither has Nugent-Hopkins, who nonetheless leads his team in scoring early this season, just as he did in the pre-season.
Carolina's Jeff Skinner, a 32-goal, 63-point man last year, when he was named rookie of the year, has resumed speed as a 19-year-old, leading the Hurricanes with six points. In Boston, Tyler Seguin, who showed flashes of brilliance as a rookie, particularly in the playoffs, is causing some buzz this year.
It's far too early, of course, with far too small a sample to draw any over-arching conclusions.
Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini's mantra has been slow, careful development for the organization he leads, from draft day through the minor leagues on up to the NHL.
Selected 22nd overall in the 2008 entry draft, Jordan Eberle played four Western Hockey League seasons with the Regina Pats; had two late-season stints with the Oilers' farm club, then in Springfield, Mass.; and played for Canada at two world junior championships and one world hockey championship before he cracked Edmonton's lineup.
Eberle was not rushed into the NHL and would probably be the poster boy for both Tambellini's organizational philosophy and Nicholson's Canadian hockey system big picture. He is all of 21
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Bumping+back+draft+proposed/5566472/story.html#ixzz1bAooJNSL
By John MacKinnon, Edmonton Journal October 18, 2011
For all the right reasons, Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson has suggested the NHL make its annual entry draft a harvest of 19-year-old talents, not 18-year-olds.
There's little doubt that sort of change would rationalize the entire hockey system, permitting midget teams to hold onto their best players for another year, allowing young talents one more year to polish their games in major junior, letting all sorts of European players remain home for another season in their formative years.
Nicholson is serious about plumping for this change, so much so he prepared a nine-page position paper on it and sent it to NHL headquarters.
"For the most part, 18-and 19-year-old players are not close to being ready for the NHL. If the draft goes back a year, it slows down the process at every level," Nicholson told Eric Francis of Sun Media. "Right now, everyone is on a treadmill to get there."
Nicholson studied the draft data for the last six years, which showed 56% of all Canadians drafted in the 2005 draft haven't played one NHL game. Overall, 88% of Canadians drafted at 18 don't play in the NHL before age 20 and only six per cent play in the NHL the year they're drafted.
Nicholson would include an exceptional player clause to permit the truly gifted athlete from being forced to remain in junior when another year could just as easily mean stagnation, not development.
It's a good thing, too, because there is quite a cluster of teenage virtuosos at work in the NHL early this season. Which suggests that if, as a rule, players are better off not being too impatient to depart junior hockey, many who do are clearly ready to play in the NHL, and play well.
Edmonton fans are giddy about 18-year-old Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, of course, and they were even before he scored his first NHL hat-trick on Saturday night in the Oilers' loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
At least, the official scoresheets say it was a three-goal effort for the slick young Nugent-Hopkins. There are those out there in the puckosphere who have been fussing over replays of the third goal like it's hockey's Zapruder film. Taylor Hall, not Nugent-Hopkins, they maintain with stiff-necked seriousness, really scored the goal.
The most grimly self-absorbed of these are muttering dark thoughts about a mythmaking conspiracy at work, from the referee, who pointed to Nugent-Hopkins immediately after he signalled it was a goal, to the Oilers padding the rookie's stats in Game 3 of his first season, to the mainstream media, always happier to write the legend instead of the truth.
Oh my, the Twitter conversation reads like a bad movie script, as if the conspiratorial misfits from Oliver Stone's JFK had just discovered hockey. It's hilarious, in a weird sort of way.
Anyway, as for the age change, the truth is that youngsters in a variety of cities are lighting it up, suggesting, at a minimum, that exceptional player rule would have to be written carefully, should Nicholson's push for an older draft gain momentum in the NHL.
In New Jersey, the buzz has been about Adam Larsson, the allaround defenceman many thought the Oilers should draft instead of Nugent-Hopkins, given their obvious issues on their back end.
Few teams in the NHL are more development conscious than Lou Lamoriello's Devils, but some early chatter from New Jersey suggested Larsson was on the way to establishing himself as the club's top defenceman until a foot injury put him on the sidelines temporarily.
In Colorado, youngsters Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog have helped the Avalanche sprint off to a 5-1 record. When the 18-yearold Landeskog, the No. 2 pick behind Nugent-Hopkins last June, scored his first of the season the other night, he also became the youngest Swede ever to score an NHL goal.
Landeskog played for the Ontario Hockey League's Kitchener Rangers last year, so if the Nicholson rule already were in place, that would work to the benefit of Kitchener, not the Swedish Elite League, where many of Landeskog's countrymen, like the Oilers' Anton Lander, honed their talent before leaving the homeland. Lander's all-around game had been polished for three seasons in the Swedish league before he arrived, seemingly ready to play in all situations, with the Oilers.
The Avalanche have Landeskog playing on a dynamite third line with Ryan O'Reilly and Daniel Winnik, so it's not as if he has been asked to carry the team as a rookie.
For that matter, neither has Nugent-Hopkins, who nonetheless leads his team in scoring early this season, just as he did in the pre-season.
Carolina's Jeff Skinner, a 32-goal, 63-point man last year, when he was named rookie of the year, has resumed speed as a 19-year-old, leading the Hurricanes with six points. In Boston, Tyler Seguin, who showed flashes of brilliance as a rookie, particularly in the playoffs, is causing some buzz this year.
It's far too early, of course, with far too small a sample to draw any over-arching conclusions.
Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini's mantra has been slow, careful development for the organization he leads, from draft day through the minor leagues on up to the NHL.
Selected 22nd overall in the 2008 entry draft, Jordan Eberle played four Western Hockey League seasons with the Regina Pats; had two late-season stints with the Oilers' farm club, then in Springfield, Mass.; and played for Canada at two world junior championships and one world hockey championship before he cracked Edmonton's lineup.
Eberle was not rushed into the NHL and would probably be the poster boy for both Tambellini's organizational philosophy and Nicholson's Canadian hockey system big picture. He is all of 21
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Bumping+back+draft+proposed/5566472/story.html#ixzz1bAooJNSL