Assiniboia welcomes Weyburn Red Wings with open arms during ammonia shutdown
1h ago
Billets were found for all Red Wings players in just four hours.
The NHL would do the right thing by raising the age of draft eligible players to 19.
It is something that has been talked about for quite some time that has minor and major junior hockey hoping that the NHL goes ahead with it.
I’ve never understood why 17-year-olds are being drafted into a professional league. The NBA mandated a change to the draft to make players be in college for a year before becoming eligible. The NFL player usually goes beyond two years, if not going the full four or five, before declaring for the draft and even the young MLB draft, players rarely don’t get to the big leagues until their early 20s and they’re through college.
But maybe the biggest impact on raising the age would be the development of players at younger ages. Move the bantam draft to 16 rather than 15 could do wonders for scouts to not put undue pressure on adolescents. Let these kids grow up a bit.
Yes, there are exceptional athletes that may be delayed a year from collecting millions but that is a very, very small minority.
CHL teams would also have a huge benefit to have their best players stay an extra year.
I don’t see much wrong with raising the age.