As we now get closer and closer to the start of the regular season, some of the top selections of the 2021 and 2022 drafts will be sent back to their junior teams to continue developing. Making the NHL is a difficult task, and with CHL players under the age of 20, the AHL is not an option due to age restrictions. Today, the Arizona Coyotes have sent Conor Geekie back to the WHL’s Winnipeg ICE, where he will remain for the rest of the season. The team has also sent undrafted netminder Anson Thornton to the Barrie Colts.
Geekie, 18, was the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft, after his outstanding 2021-22 season that saw him score 70 points in 63 games with Winnipeg. He and Matthew Savoie, the ninth overall pick (Buffalo), drive one of the most exciting offensive teams in junior hockey, and should make the ICE a contender once again this year.
Standing 6’3″ but with a game focused more on skill than size, Geekie projects to be a long-time asset down the middle for the Coyotes. At this point in the rebuild, there is no benefit from rushing a player like him, meaning a trip back to junior was always in the cards. Still, it will be interesting to see what kind of forward momentum he can build this year after already dominating most nights as a 17-year-old.
Notably, since he only turned 18 in May, Geekie will not be eligible for the AHL in 2023-24 either, as he will still be under the 20-year-old cutoff. That means the ICE could potentially get him for two more years, should he fail to make the Coyotes again next fall. For now, he’ll likely be a candidate for the Canadian Word Junior team in December, and a top performer all year in the WHL.
I fail to see why the NHL puts up with the AHL and it’s ridiculous age requirements. Do you want the best talent or not?
It’s not the AHL. The AHL would love to have these guys. It’s an agreement between the NHL and the CHL to keep talent in the CHL. College players and players drafted out of Europe can play in the AHL as 18 and 19 year olds. This is all about the CHL hanging on to their players a little longer.
I guess the question would be what exactly is stopping the NHL/AHL from backing out of this agreement. What leverage would the CHL have? It obviously seems pretty beneficial to them but not so much for the pro teams.
The agreement is what lets players in the CHL break their contracts with their Junior team and sign with the NHL team that holds their rights.
The NHL has agreements with most leagues meaning that if a player is under contract in Sweden when his NHL team wants to call him up, they can. The KHL is one of the few leagues that does not have an agreement with the NHL. If a player signs a contract in the KHL for three years they cannot sign with the NHL team that holds their rights until their KHL contract expires.
In order for the CHL to agree to let their players out of their contracts, they require teams to send them back to the CHL if they are not with an NHL team.
What’s stopping them is several-fold:
(a) Not wanting to piss off the many Canadian fans of major junior;
(b) That stripping the juniors of talent would kill off major junior; which would then
(c) Destroy the pool which supplies and trains a majority of the NHL’s talent base, and
(d) It wouldn’t necessarily work anyway. Canada is entirely capable of placating the many fans of major junior in forbidding teenagers to go pro, the same way that no one’s stopping the NCAA from forbidding college-age athletes to earn money.