WarriorofTime
Registered User
- Jul 3, 2010
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- 19,418
Thanks!Without digging up the CBA clause, there's a short window where a team could sign a North American (trained) prospect who went undrafted and had remaining draft eligibility. I believe the window closes once the player returns to junior after being a camp invite.
Notably Martin Jones was undrafted in 2008 and impressed the Kings as a camp invite, so they signed him. On the flip side, LA had Radko Gudas as an undrafted camp invite in summer 2009. They would have liked to have signed him, but Gudas hadn't played a full draft season in North America so he was required to go through the 2010 Draft. The North American / European provision caused some confusion among NHL teams when the Flyers / Oilers tried to sign Tomas Hyka and Vladimir Tkachev.
Saginaw Spirit forward Michael Sgarbossa signs contract with San Jose Sharks
Michael Sgarbossa The San Jose Sharks announced this morning that they have signed Saginaw Spirit forward Michael Sgarbossa to an entry-level contract.Sgarbossa, an NHL free agent, spent the preseason with San Jose, and scored three goals and an assist during...www.mlive.com
I vaguely recall that the Sharks used to sign an undrafted guy or two every summer to make up for trading away a bunch of draft picks. Sharks signed Michael Sgarbossa after he went undrafted in 2010 and he'd win the OHL scoring title in 2011-12.
Columbus tried to trade back into the 7th round in 2015 for local kid Kole Sherwood but were unsuccessful. Sherwood went undrafted and Columbus signed him that summer. Sherwood was slated to go to Boston University, but signing the ELC meant that he was now ineligible for the NCAA. So he'd end up going the OHL route. Not sure if he would have stayed with BU had he been drafted.
I have a memory of when the 2011 Draft concluded, a few staffers from various teams rushed into the stands presumably to recruit some undrafted kids to attend their prospect camp.
So basically:
18/19 year old goes undrafted -> gets invited to a rookie camp on a tryout basis -> can be signed to an ELC up until the point where he'd go back to Junior camp, at which point, he's back in next year's draft pool.
AND, has to be both (essentially) a CHL kid (can't play in NCAA with a pro contract) and North American.
So it's a fairly niche group (even if you like a kid in your rookie camp being willing to sign him to an ELC when you didn't throw a low pick on him a couple months earlier, most of low picks teams wait to sign to see how they progress to begin with) most of the time.
