Battalion fan here. Thought I would come here for an answer about OHL drafted players to the NHL since your organization puts a ton of player there. Does a team get development fees from the NHL when a player is selected? Or does the league get the money and distribute it thru the league? Is it draft round specific as to how much $$$ is given. Was just wondering as here in the Bay we don't produce NHL prospects!!!! Thx.
Hey Samee,
this is going to be a long answer sorry about that, for the cliff notes just skip to the bottom.
As a fan of the OHL/CHL, you should know that any information regarding anything financial, disciplinary, or recruitment/priority selection (don’t call it a draft) related is a heavily guarded secret kept under lock and key buried deep in the bowels of an office building on Milner ave in Scarborough, requiring 2 separate PIN numbers as well as retina scans from Dave Branch and Ted Baker to open. That information was pretty much limited to that as part of the CHL agreement in 2012, the NHL paid the CHL and its teams up to around 10 Million/year dependent on the amount of players drafted. It was always assumed that the team developing the player received a portion of that money but besides that it was pretty hush hush.
However with the lawsuit facing the CHL, the financial portion of that safe was opened up with multiple documents being made public. Scott Wheeler did a ton of work and wrote a great article for pension plan puppets breaking it down.
Full article here:
Understanding the unsealed documents from the CHL’s minimum-wage lawsuit
The part of the article pertaining to you question is as follows:
The CHL-NHL Agreement
This is the most revealing of the CHL-wide documents. In November of 2013, the CHL entered into a lucrative deal with the NHL that runs until June 30, 2020. The seven-season agreement pays the CHL as much as nearly $80-million over the entirety of the deal, labelled as a ‘grant’. This includes substantial benefits for individual teams that graduate players to the NHL.
A CHL team is paid up to $60,000 for each player that is signed to an NHL contract and $75,000 for each goalie who agrees to an entry-level contract. CHL teams receive an additional $17,000 per player and $20,000 per goalie if they consent to any junior player 18 years or older being made available to his NHL club. If a CHL graduate plays in the NHL at 18 and 19, his team can profit off of him as much as $145,000 for a player and $175,000 for a goalie.
If Player is retained for the entire NHL season as an 18 year old and for all or part of the second consecutive NHL season as a 19 year old, $145,000 for a player and $175,000 for a goaltender.
If a player is recalled under emergency conditions, CHL teams receive $1,000 per game played.
As part of the agreement, the NHL also reimburses the CHL more than $255,000 a year to train players on substance abuse, gambling, and assault, as well as more than $315,000 per season for training on concussions, symptoms, and other head injuries.
The agreement is broken down, year-over-year, to compensate the CHL the following:
CHL-NHL Agreement Annual Grants
| YEAR | SEASON | AMOUNT |
|---|
| | |
|---|
| 1 | 2013/14 | $10,200,000 |
| 2 | 2014/15 | $10,600,000 |
| 3 | 2015/16 | $11,000,000 |
| 4 | 2016/17 | $11,400,000 |
| 5 | 2017/18 | $11,800,000 |
| 6 | 2018/19 | $12,200,000 |
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Basically the team the player was drafted from receives the majority of the money from the NHL.
I am sure there is more to it than that. For example there are rumours regarding players traded in their draft years and their previous team either splitting or keeping the development commissions (I.e. John Tavares).
Hope that helps.
