Tawnos
A guy with a bass
I don't think it's a coincidence that it is the same as the age for UFA-eligibility. There is a lot of untapped potential in Europe. This way, there's at least something preventing teams from handing out immediate long-term deals to 24-year old Russians, Swedes, Czechs that slipped through the cracks during their draft-eligible years.
Looks to me like it goes one year beyond the regular UFA eligibility.
I’m not sure why that needs to be prevented though.