Last year, 16 Russian and 11 Belarusian prospects were selected in the CHL Import Draft. This year, there will be none. According to several reports including Darren Dreger of TSN, Jeff Marek of Sportsnet, and Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, the CHL is set to announce that players from Russia and Belarus will be declared ineligible for this year’s draft. The change will not affect players already on protected lists, like those selected last year.
For many international players, coming to the CHL early is a way to acclimatize yourself to North American hockey and get in front of higher-level hockey operations executives. Slovakian-born Martin Chromiak, for instance, was the second overall pick in the 2019 Import Draft and has now become one of the most exciting prospects in the OHL, scoring 44 goals and 86 points this season for the Kingston Frontenacs. He even made it into a pair of AHL games last spring with the Los Angeles Kings, who managed to sign him without any trouble.
In 2018 it was Finnish-born Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen who went third overall to the Sudbury Wolves after the Buffalo Sabres had already spent a second-round pick on him. He managed to win the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player before jumping directly into North American pro hockey.
The year before that, of course, was dominated by Russian players, including Andrei Svechnikov, who went first overall to the Barrie Colts. Because Svechnikov was already over in North America (he’d played 2016-17 in the USHL), the Carolina Hurricanes had no worry about making him the second overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. He wasn’t under contract in the KHL and would immediately make the jump to the NHL level.
That is where this announcement could have an effect on NHL teams. With Russian and Belarusian players no longer able to come to the CHL (at least for the time being), they will pose a much bigger risk at the NHL Draft, given their uncertain futures. Many of them will have to find other places to showcase their talents, leading not only to clubs that will try to retain them, but also transfer rules that could send them back overseas even after signing entry-level contracts. For many, playing and developing in a league closer to where their professional futures lie is appealing.
The Import Draft will take place on July 1.
This is dumb
This doesn’t make sense, unless the Russian and Belorussian hockey players are in the Russian and Belorussian military’s.
So if a kid were looking for hockey as a way out of that scene over there, then tough luck says the CHL. Very thoughtful of them.
This and Wimbledon. Where was this outrage before the CCP Olympics?
Just dont talk about ccp covid. I support the current thing ppl are gonna get pissed
Ah yes, let’s stick it to the Russian oligarchs by making their young stars play on their teams just like they want. Idiotic.
Didnt i say we live in a clown world!?
just more guys to play in the KHL then. this is the opposite of a punishment for anyone but the kids themselves.
Blame Putin’s barbaric aggression on these Russian youth! Truly IDIODIC! Leftists have no sense!