Pro contracted player signs for a OHL club (Euro issue)

Sammalinen · 01-06-2023, 12:39 PM

Just found out a 17 year old Finnish player in a Finnish club signed for a OHL club. The player had a multi-year pro contract.

As I see it, several things went wrong:
* not a news item for a Finnish club that a player was signed - only a transaction log revealed the transactions was made
* pro level contract wasn't respected by AI
* a junior player with a pro level contract was allowed to have a deal with a junior club (not 100% sure, but I've a hunch it's prohibited by several junior leagues) - even if it were possible, there's no way a European club allowed a top prospect to join NA club for 0 compensation

JeffR · 01-08-2023, 11:31 PM

The ability for major junior teams to sign contracted European players who want to play junior in North America is intended - at one point, we weren't allowing those players to sign with European teams at all, but that led to too many issues with the junior-preference players having odd career paths if there was no interest in them from a CHL team. It works much better to let them be signed, but allow them to leave if they get an offer to play for a junior team - and it's not unrealistic, since a contract signed as a 17-year-old would be of questionable enforceability. But there really should be some notification if it happens to a user-run team; I think that's been on the to-do list for a while but I'll see if we can bump it up.

01-06-2023, 12:39 PM	#1
Sammalinen Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Nov 2022 Posts: 28	Pro contracted player signs for a OHL club (Euro issue) Just found out a 17 year old Finnish player in a Finnish club signed for a OHL club. The player had a multi-year pro contract. As I see it, several things went wrong: * not a news item for a Finnish club that a player was signed - only a transaction log revealed the transactions was made * pro level contract wasn't respected by AI * a junior player with a pro level contract was allowed to have a deal with a junior club (not 100% sure, but I've a hunch it's prohibited by several junior leagues) - even if it were possible, there's no way a European club allowed a top prospect to join NA club for 0 compensation

01-08-2023, 11:31 PM	#2
JeffR FHM Producer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Kelowna, BC Posts: 17,244	The ability for major junior teams to sign contracted European players who want to play junior in North America is intended - at one point, we weren't allowing those players to sign with European teams at all, but that led to too many issues with the junior-preference players having odd career paths if there was no interest in them from a CHL team. It works much better to let them be signed, but allow them to leave if they get an offer to play for a junior team - and it's not unrealistic, since a contract signed as a 17-year-old would be of questionable enforceability. But there really should be some notification if it happens to a user-run team; I think that's been on the to-do list for a while but I'll see if we can bump it up.