NHL furious with teams who broke contract rules during shutdown!

Uh oh...

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Published 3 years ago
NHL furious with teams who broke contract rules during shutdown!
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The Athletic’s Michael Russo, who is a top insider for the Minnesota Wild, revealed on Tuesday night that the NHL is furious that a few teams have signed players to entry-level contracts with “to be determined” start dates. 

You know, normally, a team could sign a player to its “reserve list” on an ELC and later have that player join the club for the remainder of its campaign. That’s what the Colorado Avalanche ended up doing last spring with Cale Makar , who made his NHL debut in the playoffs after his NCAA campaign wrapped up. That was legal. 

Things have however changed with the current shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The league has been on hold for the past two months  and made a rule that any contract signed at this time cannot include a 2019-20 start date.

As Russo explains, the rule would prohibit a team like the Wild from bringing in KHL star Kirill Kaprizov for the stretch run. In a normal season, Kaprizov wouldn’t be able to join the Wild this season because the KHL campaign would still be running. The rule is in place so that he cannot enter the lineup as the Wild sat one point out of a playoff spot when the season was postponed and could be included in the 24-team format. 

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly made it clear to the Wild that the rule won’t be changed, sources told Russo. He also expressed how furious the league is with some teams, including the Montreal Canadiens with Alexander Romanov, the Florida Panthers with Grigori Denisenko, the Chicago Blackhawks with Ian Mitchell, and the St. Louis Blues with Scott Perunovich, who have found a potential loophole, agreeing to terms with TBD start dates. 

The NHL has not allowed any of those contracts to be submitted to its Central Registry with that terminology, Russo added.

These teams shouldn’t piss off the league while it’s trying to get the season to resume!