You sure find a lot of things weird. Who was the last Canadian born and raised kid drafted out of the CHL who refused to sign an ELC with the Canadian team that drafted him not to mention a kid who became a UFA after 2 years post-draft?
Seems pretty reasonable to me that the average fan here would be more worried about a kid from Massachusetts who stayed behind a year to help take care of his little brother and attending Harvard University not signing than a Saskatchewan kid who was playing in Kelowna not signing.
Of all of the guys who went ufa via college only wheeler has been great. If they wish to give up years in the nhl that’s their choice.
Vesey could have left after his junior year and signed a 2 year elc with Nashville in 2015. He was 22 at the time since he was drafted at age 19, so he gets a 2 year elc.
Vesey is in his 3rd year in the nhl and he’s been a decent player for a 3rd round pick.
If this is what his career will look like and say he retired at the same age if he left college early vs going ufa, he missed out on 2 years post elc salary.
Kid like Hayes needed that senior year to break out offensively. He passed on a team and city like Chicago to go to NYR. If Chicago can lose guys pretty much any team can to this option.
Vesey would have been on contract 2 during his elc year with the rangers. What is the salary going to be when it is all said and done? A few million? So, if a player is willing to give that up, that’s his choice. Move on.
Kerfoot and Butcher moved on and it amazingly turned out that they signed with the other players team who drafted them. In essence a trade for the 2 teams.
Schultz picked his spot and needed a trade to Pitt and taking a massive pay cut for a year to get his career back on track. If he doesn’t get moved to Pitt and remained in Edm, where is he at now? Depends on whether he chased money that off season or went to a solid team to get his game in order. What could he have been had he gone through the ducks system like Fowler, Montour, Lindholm, Vats, Manson, Theodore did?
Mike Reilly passed on CBS and went to Minnesota. He’s still not a regular for them.