OHL Draft

[Questions]

With the new age restrictions on 16 year olds playing junior hockey (even tougher next year) should the OHL draft be reduced to 5 rounds? This would minimize false hopes and unreal expectations. It could also be a benefit to the "undrafted" players, less drafted players should mean more spots for walk-ons. This would allow players an extra year to develop and give more players a chance to try out for spots on teams of their choice or that are in need of players at their positions. Drafting 15 rounds restricts many options for players and usually means many players drafted never make it to Major Junior.

[9]

The current situation with the priority draft and the Canadian model should still allow players to develop in lower levels of hockey. As a general rule of thumb players taken in rounds 1-4 usually play in the "O" the first year. Players in rounds 5-9 are usually 1 year away if they continue to develop. Rounds 10-12 are 2 year projects and anyone taken after that are basically a walk-on anyway. Reducing the number of rounds probably won't mean anything significant and if you take a closer look at the success rate of the overall draft process it's really a crap shoot anyway.

[Questions]

I agree with your breakdown of when players usually make it, but thought if the draft was only 5 rounds the later developing players could try out for more than one team which might give them more opportunity to play in the OHL. Also, the comment on players drafted in rounds 1-4 usually play in the "O" their first year. The OHL only allowed a maximum of 3 players to make it per team this year. This is against the Canadian Development Model rules but I guess the OHL sets their own rules??? How many players trying out this year knew that the OHL was not following the Hockey Canada rules??

[homer]

Reduce the OHL draft to less than 10 rounds. Restrict Junior hockey to kids 17 and over. Limit junior hockey to 20 years of age. Drop the overage in Junior C and OHL.

[9]

The comment about rounds 1-4 is making an assumption of a goalie being taken in rounds1-2, since goalies are exempt from the guidelines. This opens the door for the wildcart pick or a player being elevated once the season has started.

[Questions]

I believe the OHL rule states that the first & secound round picks are two of the players to be counted against the total 16's eligible, then you are allowed a wild card pick from the rest of the 16's for a total of three. However, if you sign a goalie you can keep 4 16's. Hockey Canada's new rule states that Major Junior teams can sign an average of 4 16's per team (this year) without any mention of these OHL conditions. Obviously the OHL is doing its own thing and unfortunately did not communicate this to the public before their training camps opened. Likely many players attended Major Junior camps under the false impression they had a real chance at one of a maximum of 4 spots. If a player understood the OHL rules maybe they would commit to a Tier 2 or Junior B team instead of attending the OHL camp. This would be a real consideration because of the restricted number of 16's eligible for these other levels of junior hockey. The first players to commit likely would get the spots!!! All of this gets back to the issue of why bother drafting 15 rounds. Undrafted players would have more options to select where they want to try-out, both in the current year and following years. Perhaps someone should question the validity of Hockey Canada's "CDM" when not everyone has to follow the same rules.