After last week’s Prospect Update, I was asked via Twitter how long the Bruins hold the rights to players before they become unrestricted free agents. If you don’t like following the blog here, you can refer to CapFriendly which provides you with the date the Bruins hold onto the rights of players here. But how is that time determined? I will answer that for you here.
First, you will see the term Bona Fide Offer here and throughout the CBA. What is a Bona Fide Offer? It is an offer of a Standard Player’s Contract (SPC) corresponding to a player’s age as required under the CBA (one-year, two-year or three-year deal) and is to commence at the start of the next year. The Bona Fide offer must be for the Minimum Paragraph 1 salary and the offer must remain open to the player for 30 days and carries no right to salary arbitration.
Secondly, you will see player’s age as it pertains to draft picks, it is determined as follows: Age 18 means a player reaching his 18th birthday between January 1 preceding the Entry Draft and September 15 following the Entry Draft. Age 19 means a player reaching his 19th birthday no later than September 15 in the calendar year of the Entry Draft. Age 20, Age 21 and Age 22 means a player reaching their 20th, 21st and 22nd birthdays no later than December 31 in the calendar year of the respective Entry Draft.
How Long a team holds the rights to a player is based on two things: 1) Their age when drafted and 2) The league they were drafted from (the player’s nationality has no bearing on it). Here is the break down of how it works:
Canadian Hockey League (QMJHL, OHL and WHL)
The Club must make a Bona Fide offer to the player on or before June 1 in the calendar year succeeding the Entry Draft. If the Club makes a Bona Fide Offer, the club will retain exclusive negotiating rights up to and including the second June 1 following the Entry Draft.
If a player drafted as an 18-year-old ceases to play Major Junior in the first year after he was drafted then the Club will have exclusive rights until the fourth June 1 following his draft. If a player drafted as an 18-year-old leaves Major Junior in the second year following his draft and has received a Bona Fide Offer, the Club retains exclusive negotiating rights until the fourth June 1 following his draft.
If a player drafted as a 19-year-old ceases to play Major Junior in the first year following his draft then the Club will have exclusive rights until the third June 1 following his draft. The Club can extend the rights to the fourth June 1 following his draft by making a Bona Fide Offer. The Bona Fide Offer can be extended any time before the third June 1 following his draft.
College (NCAA)
If a player drafted at age 18 or 19 is a bona fide college student or becomes a bona fide college student by first June 1 following his draft and remains a college student through graduation, the Club will have exclusive negotiating rights until August 15 following graduation of his class.
If a player drafted at age 18 or 19 is a bona fide college student or becomes a bona fide college student by first June 1 following his draft and does not remain a bona fide student until graduation of his class, then the Club will retain exclusive rights until the later of: a) the fourth June 1 following his draft b) 30 days after NHL Central Registry receives notice that the player is no longer a bona fide student on or after January 1 of an academic year and the player 1) has commenced his fourth year of college or 2) is in his fourth year of college and is scheduled to graduate then the circumstances described in (1) or (2) the Club retains exclusive rights through August 15.
NCAA players who played in the USHL or Canadian Junior A can have an extra year or two tacked on. If they were drafted out of those two Leagues and received a Bona Fide Offer described above and become a college student on or before the second June 1 following their draft, the Club will retain exclusive rights until August 15 following the graduation of his class. Dustyn McFaul and Quinn Olson are two examples here.
Europeans
This is more complicated but basically, if a player is drafted from outside North America the Club will retain exclusive negotiating rights until the fourth June 1 following his draft. The exceptions are players drafted from Russia. Because there is no transfer agreement between the NHL and Russia, a Club never loses exclusive negotiating rights to those players. Maxim Chudinov and Roman Bychkov are two examples. If a player had an NHL contract at one time and “defected” overseas, then the Club will hold exclusive negotiating rights until June 1 of the player’s 27th birthday. Peter Cehlarik and Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson are two examples here.
Is it complicated? Yes, but there are those that make it simple and keep track of the dates for you.
Now, let’s look at the week that was in the NCAA Tournaments:
In the ECAC, Mason Langenbrunner and the number 2 seed Harvard Crimson defeated number 3 Cornell 1-0 in overtime. In the other semi-final, number 5 seed Colgate upset number 1 seed Quinnipiac 2-1 in overtime. That set up a final Saturday between Harvard and Colgate.
Colgate would take the final 3-2 and take home the Whitelaw Trophy.
Over in the NCHC, Jake Schmaltz had an assist Friday for 6th seeded North Dakota but they would fall to number 4 seed St Cloud State 3-2 in overtime. In the other semi-final, 7th seed Colorado College defeated number 1 seed Denver and a meeting with St Cloud on Saturday in the final.
In Hockey East, number 1 seed Boston University with Ty Gallagher defeated number 7 seed Providence with Riley Duran and Philip Svedeback 2-1 in overtime. Both Bruins prospects were kept off the scoresheet and Svedeback stopped 23 of 25 shots he faced. Providence outshot Boston University 38-25. BU would meet number 2 seed Merrimack in the final Saturday.
BU would take the finale 3-2 in overtime and win the Lou Lamoriello Trophy. Gallagher was held off the scoresheet in the final.
Now, the NCAA moves on to the 16 teams that will compete for the national title. Mason Lohrei and Ohio State, although eliminated in conference play will be there and go up against Langenbrunner and Harvard. Gallagher and Boston University are the 5th seed and go up against Western Michigan. The round of 16 will take place March 23-26 with the Frozen Four taking place at Amalie Arena in Tampa with the semis going on April 6 and the championship on April 8.
In the J20 Nationell, Lulea HF suffered a heartbreaking loss to Mora IK on Saturday for top spot as league play comes to an end. Lulea will face Frolunda HC in a best-of-three series in Slutspel (playoffs). Dans Locmelis finishes the Top-10 leading the league in scoring with 12 goals and 13 assists in 16 games. Combined with divisional play, he finishes fourth in league scoring with 59 points. His 25 goals had him seventh in combined scoring while his 34 assists ranked third.
Matias Mantykivi and Ilves Tampere won their opening playoff game in the Finnish Liiga 5-1 against Assat. Mantykivi was held off the scoresheet. Important note on this game is he played third line wing in a shut down role. This series should be a cake walk for Ilves, but hey, the games need to be decided on the ice.
In the Hockey Allsvenskan, Jonathan Myrenberg and his Mora squad also won their series opener against Sodertalje 4-2. Myrenberg was held off the scoresheet and played on the second pair.
Over in the CHL, Matthew Poitras and the Guelph Storm are trying frantically to move into the number 5 seed to avoid the Big Three in the opening round of the playoffs: Brett Harrison (Windsor Spitfires), Jackson Edward (London Knights) and Ryan Mast (Sarnia Sting). The Sting are the CHL’s hottest team entering the final week of the season with a 12-0-3 record in their last 15 games. Windsor holds down top spot just 2 points ahead of the Knights and 5 ahead of the Sting with Sarnia holding a game in hand on both.
Reid Dyck and the Swift Current Broncos are currently outside the WHL playoff picture looking in and 2 points behind the Calgary Hitmen with Calgary holding a game in hand. They are also 3 points behind the Medicine Hat Tigers with the latter holding a game in hand. The key here is the two teams will go head-to-head in a home-and-home on the final weekend of the season.
Frederic Brunet and the Victoriaville Tigres are locked into third place in the QMJHL Western Conference Standings and can neither move up or down in the final week of the season. They will likely face the Drummondville Voltigeurs but there is a chance they could face the Shawinigan Cataractes.
One last thing for this week: I am repeatedly asked why the Bruins prospect pool is ranked so low and the simple answer is that they’ve drafted so low over the last several years that they lack the top end prospects of other teams. That much is fact. I don’t know or pretend to know how anyone does their rankings and frankly, I don’t want to know. What I do know is that you have to watch these players continuously as they are still in their prime developmental years.
Here’s my example: On Saturday morning I got up and watched Locmelis’ last regular season game. I had one hour between that and watching Mantykivi’s first playoff game. From there I watched the Bruins game and then Myrenberg’s first playoff game. From there I traveled to Owen Sound to watch the Attack and the Kitchener Rangers game (to do my OHL work). And as I write this I still have 5 NCAA/CHL games on que to watch plus isolation video of Poitras’ last game.
That’s just one team. I don’t know how anyone can do that for 32 teams. I’m not a daily visitor to Elite Prospects or Hockeydb to get my information solely on statistics. That said, there are a few prospects you can be excited about. But the vast majority are lower end. I will do a prospect ranking after the season. At least you’ll know what goes behind them.
Here’s a look at the Providence Bruins leaders:
Coming up this week:
| PLAYER | MON 20 | TUE 21 | WED 22 | THU 23 | FRI 24 | SAT 25 | SUN 26 |
| MANTYKIVI | Vs ASS | At ASS | Vs ASS | ||||
| LOCMELIS | Vs FRO | At FRO | *Vs FRO | ||||
| MYRENBERG | At SOD | Vs SOD | Vs SOD | ||||
| LOHREI | Vs HAR | TBD | |||||
| LANGENBRUNNER | Vs OH | TBD | |||||
| GALLAGHER | Vs W M | TBD | |||||
| POITRAS | At WSR | Vs ER | At SAG | ||||
| HARRISON | Vs GUE | At LDN | Vs LDN | ||||
| MAST | At O S | Vs O S | At ER | At NIA | |||
| EDWARD | Vs WSR | At WSR | Vs KIT | ||||
| BRUNET | At DRU | At SHE | Vs SHE | ||||
| DYCK | Vs EDM | Vs M H | At M H |
* If necessary
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Dom - Hockey 