Player Progression

Can some explain or point me to a site that explains the route hockey players take from high school to the pros. To me it seems like they go to minors, then college, then the minors again, then pros, but I'm not sure this is right.

Most college prospects go through the Canadian juniors when they are in their early through mid teens. The juniors are not the same as minors (the minors are the professional minor leagues). The juniors are amateur -- they consist of all those places on Heisenberg's site in provincial leagues like the AJHL, BCJHL, SJHL, OPJHL. There is a division between junior B (lower) and junior A (higher) teams that nobody has ever given me a straight answer about. Kids on junior teams play long schedules, spend a lot of time on buses, board with host families ("billets".

Other than the prep schools and high schools, there's not much of a US equivalent to the Canadian junior system, although there is the USHL, which is our attempt, and there is the USNDP. Kids who have finished high school or prep school sometimes spend an extra year in the USHL honing their skills before going to college.

Making things a little more confusing is that there is a CHL which is called "major junior" but which is an alternate to college. This is an amateur development system of three leagues (WHL, OHL, and QMJHL) where players 16-20 go to try to get drafted by the NHL.

The minors are divided informally into development leagues where the pros stick their bonus babies (AHL, the old IHL, ECHL) and leagues where guys with virtually no chance go because it beats workin' at Sears (WPHL, WCHL, etc). The minors are professional leagues, although salaries are miniscule.

So it goes high school/prep/Canadian juniors -> college / CHL -> minors -> pro? Are the canadian juniors in place of the juniors? Also, what's the deal with drafting - is it done by age or level of play?

AFAIK (correct me if I have some details wrong):

For amateurs it goes:

(1) US high/prep --> US college

or sometimes

(2) US high/prep --> a year of USHL --> US college

or

(3) minor junior --> US college

or

(4) that stuff below minor junior (bantam? peewee? I always mix them up) --> major junior

Euros also get fed into the system, depending on their age when recruited to North America (mid teens for Major Junior; college age for college).

The major juniors have their own draft of 15 year olds, their own protected lists, etc. It is regional (i.e., the WHL drafts BC, Alberta, and prairie kids, the OHL drafts from Ontario and the Maritimes, the QMJHL drafts Quebecois). It used to be that once you were in major junior you lost your college eligibility (there is a per diem, etc.) but that has now been relaxed to allow a little movement between the college and major junior path.

The NHL entry draft is based on your hockey age (that is, an age adjusted for the "year" between draft dates). You are draft-eligible one time only at 18. If you aren't drafted, anybody can negotiate with you as a free agent. If you are drafted, the drafting team has 2 years to sign you or you go into free agency. Drafting exists both to help poor teams get better and to exert a drag on salaries by limiting quality players' choices early in their careers.

Once drafted, a player can stay in college if he isn't signed or can stay in major junior if he isn't called up to the pros for more than a small number (9?) of days. No one may stay in major junior beyond 20 in hockey age, and obviously no one can stay in college beyond their eligibility based on number of years varsity (although there is a Canadian college system which apparently lets almost anybody play, including degree holders and four year lettermen from US colleges).

Usually, a signed player goes to the minors for experience and to pay his dues. NHL teams own and operate their own minor league clubs, just like AAA baseball teams. There are also independent minor league teams that stock their rosters either with loaned players under NHL minor league contracts or free agents.

So, the post-draft route is usually:

(1) Drafted --> College or major junior until signing --> Minors --> NHL

(2) Undrafted --> Signed to a minor league contract as free agent --> Independent Minor League Team --> Hail Mary chance of being signed to an NHL contract.

for many college doesn't play into the equation. many play juniors, get drafted and then (either immediately or after a bit more time in the juniors) go straight to the minors (AHL, etc) or the NHL (depending on how good they are and what positions the NHL team might need to strengthen).

college is often viewed as a chance to improve skill and thus increase the chances for someone only doing ok at the junior level to get drafted. college is also sometimes chosen by those who are good enough to move up but who choose to get the education while they can. the education is a great back up and you can still play hockey and improve your game.

as for the draft, this is how i understand it - someone correct me if i'm wrong ...

drafting is based on an age range as well as having the required skill to be noticed by the scouts and the make the potential draft list - hence the central scouting rankings. don't know the age of the top of my head but think that it is something like 18-21 or something like that. quite a narrow window. but if you are a late bloomer there's still a chance to make it to the NHL. You can still sign with a farm team after the age of 21. You simply wouldn't have been drafted.

College hockey players and those intending to play college hockey do not get drafted when they are 18 years old. That is because one must declare into the draft when they are 18 and the NCAA regards anyone doing that a pro. A year later, one can be drafted without declaring the intension. The NCAA doesn't mind this.

The NHL has their draft in the spring and the cutoff date for being draft eligible is turning 18 before the middle of October. (I don't remember the exact date, but it is on [centralscouting.nhl.com] which I can't connect to at the moment.) Let's say it is 10/20. Thus in the spring of 2002 one had to be born before 10/20/1984 to be drafted or before 10/20/1983 if you wanted to play college hockey. The high-end cutoff is turning 20 on 1 January. So one had to be born on or after 1/1/1982. Thus depending upon what time of year one is born one can be eligible for the draft a different amount of times. Why? I don't know. Let me repeat, the 10/20 date could be a week off.

how does one sign up to play for the junior teams? how do the junior teams support themselves? are they comparable to the typical high school varsity teams? given what greg wrote earlier about the long schedule and road trips, do these kids spend a significant amount of time away from school and family?

just trying to get a better idea, that's all...

In the bad old days, kids left home at 13 or 14 and boarded with a host family and went to a school (when they weren't on the road) in a town hundreds of miles from home. Older kids had tutors travelling with the team and there was some sort of oversight by the Canadian education authorities but it was mostly for show-- scholarship was not, shall we say, stressed. This was a huge criticism of junior hockey and there have probably been cursory reforms.

The Central Scouting Service site is up and succinctly explains the draft eligibility rules. As ursaminor explained above, players who opt into the draft forfeit their NCAA eligibility. That's what Rick DiPietro did prior to the 2000 NHL draft.

I'm pasting the draft eligibility rules here:


Draft Eligibility

Beginning with the 1980 Entry Draft, all 18, 19 and 20-year old North American and non-North American born players have been eligible to be drafted. In addition, non-North American players aged 21-years or older are eligible for claim. From 1987 to 1991, the selection of 18 and 19-year-old players was restricted to the first three rounds of the draft, unless the player met qualifying criteria that dealt with hockey experience in major junior, U.S. college and high school or European hockey. Starting with the 1992 Draft, those players were available in all rounds.

Players eligible for selection in the nine rounds (plus compensatory picks) of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft are subject to the following:


North American players born between January 1, 1982 and September 15, 1984 are eligible for selection in all rounds.
Non-North American players 18 years of age or older as of September 15, 2002 are eligible for selection in all rounds, with no maximum age limit.
Non-North American players must be drafted before signing with an NHL team.

"Opting-In" to the Entry Draft

Beginning with the 1995 Entry Draft, all players 18-years of age are required to "opt-in" to be eligible for selection. This year, any player born between Sept. 16, 1983 and Sept. 15, 1984 is considered to be 18-years of age and, therefore, must "opt-in" to the Entry Draft.

Any player born prior to Sept. 16, 1983 is automatically eligible for selection and is not required to "opt-in".

A player has until the later of May 1, 2002 or up until seven days of his team's last game to "opt-in" to be considered eligible for selection.

Re-Entering the Draft


In 1978, the NHL saw the first players re-enter the Entry Draft after being selected by NHL clubs in 1977.

Any player 20-years of age or younger that has not signed a contract within two years of being drafted or has not received a bona fide offer from the NHL club that drafted them within one year of being drafted are subject to re-enter the Entry Draft. All contracts or bona fide offers must be completed before
June 1, 2002. European players who have not signed a contract or whose rights have been released by the NHL club that drafted them, without playing in North America as an 18, 19 or 20-year-old, are subject to re-entry.

If a player is drafted twice and remains without a contract, he is not subject to re-entry.

Craig,

Thanks for posting that. I was a month off on the cutoff date. As you wrote, it is the middle of September, not the middle of October.