princedpw said:
I thought that if a guy played in Junior, that year didn't count against his ELC....
What are the circumstances under which the ELC is delayed?
(A) None? It can never be delayed? The 3 year clock begins when a guy is drafted and plays anywhere in NA but in college?
Or
(B) it can be delayed in the guy plays in junior and no contract is signed? If this is the case then I suppose the strategy is simply to not sign him until you are sure he will play on your roster. Could that not have happened to Schenn?
Just trying to get the rules straight ... I thought there was a way to delay the onset of the 3-year ELC.
No, tha'ts exactly what it means - 3 professional seasons under their ELC. Where you were wrong is in regards to Schenn. Regardless of whether or not he played another year in junior, his 2nd contract would have been based off of his 3 years of NHL experience, which means it likely still would have been in the $3.6M range. He played well enough in his first 3 seasons to earn that contract in the mind of his GM. Another year in junior would not have been likely to change that - in fact, there's a good chance it would have had the opposite impact. It may have made him look better in those 3 seasons and raised his salary.
Sending a player back to junior doesn't give teams another season to evaluate a player's value for their next contract, because their play in junior is not relevant to their NHL value once they have 3 professional seasons under their belt. 2nd contracts for NHL players are based on their professional play, not their junior play.