Dubinsky: NHL's college free-agency process is 'a joke'
Brandon Dubinsky is tweeting what some in hockey circles are thinking about the NHL's free-agency rules when it comes to college players:
The college free agency situation in the @NHL needs to be figured out...it's a joke especially to the guys that play major junior
- Brandon Dubinsky (@BDubi17) August 25, 2017
I bet teams that make the draft pick would agree with me as well!
- Brandon Dubinsky (@BDubi17) August 25, 2017
The Columbus Blue Jackets forward later issued a clarification:
Let me clarify...I want players to have all options they can when they sign a contract major junior players can't and it's not fair thats it
- Brandon Dubinsky (@BDubi17) August 25, 2017
Last summer, Hobey Baker Award winner Jimmy Vesey spurned the Nashville Predators - who drafted him in 2012 - then chose not to sign with the Buffalo Sabres - who acquired his rights from Nashville - instead agreeing to an entry-level deal with the New York Rangers.
This year's Hobey Baker recipient, Will Butcher, elected not to sign with the Colorado Avalanche, who selected him in the 2013 draft, opting to test the unrestricted free-agency waters. He'll decide on his NHL destination Sunday.
Harvard forward Alexander Kerfoot made the decision not to sign with the New Jersey Devils, who picked him in 2012, officially landing with the Avalanche on Thursday.
College players can elect not to sign with the club that drafts them, and those players can choose to become UFAs in mid-August.
It's a process that could be debated before the league's collective bargaining agreement comes up for renewal in 2022. The NHL and the players can renegotiate the CBA as early as 2019.
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