Anaheim Ducks: What it Means to Burn an ELC Year for Max Comtois

For rookies in the NHL, there are several big milestones, first game, first goal, first assist etc. But for the management of those rookie’s teams, there are two milestones that are even more important than any other. The 10 games played mark, and the 42 games played mark.

The reasoning for this is slightly complicated but it’s important. When players are drafted in the NHL, the team who drafts them owns their rights, meaning no other NHL team can sign them. The length of time that a team owns a players rights is determined by where the player played prior to being drafted, it’s an odd system but it goes as follows.

If a player played college hockey in the US, (Troy Terry, Jimmy Vesey, Justin Schultz) the team who drafts them will retain their rights until 30 days after they leave college. If they do not sign with the team who drafts them, they become an unrestricted free agent, free to sign wherever they choose.

If a player played in Europe prior to being drafted, the team who drafts them will retain their rights for 4 years before they are a free agent.

And lastly, if a player played in the CHL, teams will own their rights for 2 years after they draft them before they become a UFA.

But we’re not here today to talk about the confusing system of who owns the rights to a player they drafted and for how long. We’re going to talk about what happens with players after they sign their entry-level contract. Once a player signs an entry-level contract, they become bound to the team they sign with for much longer than any of the above numbers, and it’s why the 10 games played and 42 games played milestones are so important in a rookie season.

An entry-level deal for a player drafted in the NHL is for 3 seasons, and consists of an incredibly minuscule cap hit. Most high-end players are signed to the maximum value entry-level deal, and that comes with a price tag of under one million a season. Whether it’s Connor McDavid or John Dahlstrom their cap hit will be roughly the same.

In the NHL there’s a rule known as “sliding” your entry-level deal. This is where the first milestone comes in to play. If an 18 or 19-year-old player signs a contract and makes an NHL roster, the first nine games are for lack of a better term, playing with house money. Meaning if the team sends them back down to your junior team, or sends them back to Europe any time during games one through nine, their contract will slide a season, but the second they touch the ice for their tenth game of the season, their contract is activated and the clock starts ticking. After the contract is activated there’s no potential for a slide, and after 3 seasons from the activation season, the player will become a restricted free agent.

A restricted free agent is not technically free, they are able to sign a contract with any team in the NHL, however, they must sign an “offer sheet” as opposed to simply signing a contract. The team who owns the players right then has 7 days to decide whether they want to match the offer or let the player walk and receive compensation. The compensation ranges from nothing all the way up to four first-round draft selections. For full details on compensation check the list here.

Personally, I feel it’s a smart move to put yourself in the position that you need to lock up some of the younger players earlier, it gives you a chance to find real value contracts like the one that Rickard Rakell is currently on, and Cam Fowler was on before him. Yes, it may risk rushing the player a bit, but it’s a risk that could lead to a big reward down the line.

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By forcing themselves to lock up all of their current young pieces in one off-season, it does also, in my opinion, help by giving you a concrete outline of what your franchise looks like, and what you have to spend going into a season where 3 huge names are looking for new deals, which gives the General Manager a chance to devote more attention to signing those 3, by having one or two less name to lock up.

Will this move work out long term? It’s difficult to say, but when you look at the Ducks track record of keeping up young players past that 9 game slide period, for the most part, it’s worked out well. Murray is notoriously conservative with his players, and if he feels that they are ready to make the jump, given how that turned out for guys like Hampus Lindholm, and Fowler, I am of the opinion that he is making the right decision.