Kraken prospect Shane Wright will be allowed to play in AHL if he can’t make NHL squad
|
Sep. 12, 2023 at 11:00 am Updated Sep. 12, 2023 at 11:14 am
By Geoff Baker
Seattle Times staff reporter
Inside the NHL
Top prospect Shane Wright will have at least one less major thing to worry about next week when attending his second Kraken training camp.
Kraken general manager Ron Francis told me Monday that, after discussions with counterparts from the NHL and Ontario Hockey League (OHL), he’ll be granted an exemption to send Wright to the American Hockey League in lieu of the junior ranks if he doesn’t make the squad. The Kraken announced Tuesday they’ll stage a rookie camp Sept. 18 and 19 at the Kraken Community Iceplex followed by full camp opening on Sept. 21.
“I don’t have anything in writing saying I’m good, but it sounds like if we got to that point, it would be OK,” Francis said.
This is huge news in that the Kraken won’t be forced to carry Wright on their NHL roster if he isn’t ready. And for Wright, it eliminates potentially being forced into another junior season where his development would be curtailed facing young amateurs rather than seasoned pros.
A longstanding transfer agreement between the NHL and the three Canadian-based major junior circuits — including the OHL — states players drafted from those leagues can’t be demoted to the AHL until they turn 20 and instead must be returned to their junior teams. The age cutoff for turning 20 is Dec. 31 of any season and last year’s former No. 4 overall draft pick Wright, still only 19, missed that by five days.
The agreement also allows exemptions after playing four full major junior seasons. Wright would have already done that had the OHL not canceled its 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also missed qualifying for that fourth campaign last season by a single game when his Windsor Spitfires were unexpectedly swept in the opening OHL playoff round.
Given all that, in addition to the odyssey Wright endured last season — between an eight-game Kraken trial, junior contests, a onetime AHL rehabilitation assignment and then additional AHL playoff contests he was eligible for under the rules — this latest decision makes sense. There were valid concerns forcing Wright back to junior hockey or keeping him in the NHL before he’s ready would harm his pro development.
Francis made clear he hopes Wright sticks with the Kraken this time beyond a maximum nine-game trial limit before his first entry level contract season would kick in. Indeed, Francis would be foolish not to want that given the summer departures he allowed of Kraken forwards previously under club control to free potential roster space for Wright, Tye Kartye and Kole Lind.
The departure of restricted free agent Morgan Geekie is one Francis swallowed hard on, given he’d first drafted him in Carolina before unexpectedly selecting him again two summers ago in the expansion draft. Geekie showed promise and development during two Kraken seasons, but also played the same primary center position as Wright.
“We’re going to come in and commit to giving Shane every chance to make our team,” Francis said. “And if at some point we make a decision that he’s not going to make it, then we would look to assign him to Coachella Valley and I believe at that point we would be fine in doing that.”
Francis still appears to be tap-dancing a bit in his first public comments confirming a Wright exemption. But that’s merely because this is a highly sensitive topic for all.
The reality is Francis spoke months ago with OHL Commissioner David Branch and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly about a Wright exemption. At the time, all were said by sources to have reached agreement that forcing Wright back to junior hockey wasn’t in the best interests of the player or sport.
But they’ve kept quiet about that understanding all summer. I reached out to both Branch and Daly in early August and neither responded to confirm a deal had been reached.
The last thing folks running the OHL, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League or Western Hockey League — which includes our local Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips — want is a flood of exemption requests from teenage draft picks bored by the prospect of playing more junior seasons. Indeed, this requires a case-by-case examination and very few players will have endured a pathway quite like Wright’s.
For them, there was likely no sense trumpeting an exemption deal all summer, especially when it could become moot if Wright makes the Kraken. This way, very little is public or committed to paper. It’s only coming out now because, with camp looming, the buzz about Wright’s future was impossible to ignore.
Daly did email back Tuesday, when told of Francis’s comments, to say no “official ruling” would be made unless needed if Wright doesn’t stick with the team. He added it would be a joint decision between the NHL and major junior officials and that “as a general matter, we don’t favor granting exemptions or waivers, but the facts in this case are particularly unique.”
The longstanding transfer agreement, renewed last year through 2028-29, has become increasingly controversial given the rise of NHL players coming from the NCAA, Europe and the U.S.-based junior ranks who aren’t subject to the same rule and can be sent to the AHL at any time.
Still, the Canadian major junior leagues operate differently in that players are paid financial stipends and thus ineligible for NCAA play. Those drafted eventually go directly from major junior to the NHL or minor pros, whereas other junior leagues often see draftees head to college hockey.
Bottom line: Major junior team owners don’t want to absorb needless financial hits by losing drafted star players to for-profit AHL teams years before they are NHL-ready. They claim the AHL’s financial gain would result in their own ruination.
Not to mention, many 18- and 19-year-old draftees aren’t ready to play against fully-grown AHL pros and lack the option of developing against older NCAA competition.
So, the NHL lets major junior teams keep unready returnees for another season or two of gate receipts.
The NHL still needs a strong major junior system as it remains the top supplier of young talent. In the most recent June draft, 80 players came from the major junior ranks compared to 39 from the U.S. junior leagues — which includes the National Team Development Program (NTDP) — and 33 and 15 players, respectively, from European and Russian junior circuits.
So, like it or not, major junior hockey remains vital to the NHL. And concerns of keeping its for-profit team owners happy can’t be ignored. Those financial concerns just couldn’t be allowed to keep needlessly damaging the development of a player the Kraken hope to build much of their own future profitability around.
Geoff Baker: [email protected]; on Twitter: @GeoffBakerTimes. Geoff Baker covers hockey and is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter for The Seattle Times.
|
Responses:
|
