Post by Black Cat on Jun 12, 2008 12:09:56 GMT -5
That's easy to understand:
Draft: each year, all the NHL teams gather along with the best junior hockey players (that is, players that are 17-18 years old). These players are then selected by the teams, according to a certain order. Normally, the order of selection is determined by how good the team was during the season. It's hard to explain exactly how the order is determined, but let just say that the worst teams of the last season get the first choices. The earlier they can select a player, the better are their chances to pick the best available player (IE, in 2005 Pittsburgh, who had one of the worst seasons in history, had the first choice of the draft. They've picked Crosby, the best player available at the moment. The Habs picked Carey Price with the 5th choice overall). Once a player is selected, his rights are owned by the team, so he cannot sign with another team (unless he is traded or his the team decide to let him go). There ae 7 rounds of drafting, with each teams having one selection per rounds. However, some teams trade their picks, so sometimes certain teams don't have or do have more than one selection during a given round.
Of course, the players that are selected in the first round are the best junior players available and can become all-stars in the NHL. However, sometimes, some players that had some potential to become stars during their junior years are totally draft busts. Alexandre Daigle, for example, was the 1st choice overall in the 1993 draft by the Ottawa Senators. He was supposed to be some kind of Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky. Well, in 616 NHL games, he recorded only 327 points, and he is now playing in Switzerland. Crosby, on the other hand, has already 294 points in only 213 games.
Free agents: In the contract that links the NHL to the players association (the union defending the players' rights), on July 1st, players that have played a certain number of years in the NHL and that don't have a contract have the right to sign with any team of their choice. These are unrestricted free agents. Restricted free agents are players that don't have contracts but can also sign with any team they want. However, if they do sign with a different team than the one they were with, their new team must pay a certain amount of money, with sometimes give away draft picks, to the former team of the player to compensate for their lost. It's pretty rare though that restricted free agents sign with a different team.
Draft: each year, all the NHL teams gather along with the best junior hockey players (that is, players that are 17-18 years old). These players are then selected by the teams, according to a certain order. Normally, the order of selection is determined by how good the team was during the season. It's hard to explain exactly how the order is determined, but let just say that the worst teams of the last season get the first choices. The earlier they can select a player, the better are their chances to pick the best available player (IE, in 2005 Pittsburgh, who had one of the worst seasons in history, had the first choice of the draft. They've picked Crosby, the best player available at the moment. The Habs picked Carey Price with the 5th choice overall). Once a player is selected, his rights are owned by the team, so he cannot sign with another team (unless he is traded or his the team decide to let him go). There ae 7 rounds of drafting, with each teams having one selection per rounds. However, some teams trade their picks, so sometimes certain teams don't have or do have more than one selection during a given round.
Of course, the players that are selected in the first round are the best junior players available and can become all-stars in the NHL. However, sometimes, some players that had some potential to become stars during their junior years are totally draft busts. Alexandre Daigle, for example, was the 1st choice overall in the 1993 draft by the Ottawa Senators. He was supposed to be some kind of Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky. Well, in 616 NHL games, he recorded only 327 points, and he is now playing in Switzerland. Crosby, on the other hand, has already 294 points in only 213 games.
Free agents: In the contract that links the NHL to the players association (the union defending the players' rights), on July 1st, players that have played a certain number of years in the NHL and that don't have a contract have the right to sign with any team of their choice. These are unrestricted free agents. Restricted free agents are players that don't have contracts but can also sign with any team they want. However, if they do sign with a different team than the one they were with, their new team must pay a certain amount of money, with sometimes give away draft picks, to the former team of the player to compensate for their lost. It's pretty rare though that restricted free agents sign with a different team.