Throughout the past few months, much has been written and discussed about the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) recently signed by the NHL and NHLPLA. Most of the key information surrounds contract rules and other information pertaining to NHL players.
However, some of the finer details further down the page involves more general hockey business — and earlier today, a bit of bombshell was released:
Contained in the linked article by PuckPedia, it was noted that “AHL Loans for 19 year old players not yet in effect, but an effort is being made to negotiate this with the CHL for the 25-26 season.”
This would be huge news for the LA Kings, as well as nearly every other NHL club.
For years, this topic has been a bit controversial, as the NHL’s long-standing transfer agreement with the CHL (who oversees the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL) mandates that players under 20 years old are required to return to their junior clubs if they don’t make a team’s NHL roster. For years, this has meant that top prospects had to go back to junior hockey for another year when they were already clearly superior to most of the other talent in that league.
During the pandemic, the Kings dodged a bullet with this rule due to the OHL being shut down. This actually allowed Quinton Byfield to play a season with the Ontario Reign; a year in which he was otherwise targeted for the OHL.
However, more recently, Brandt Clarke was caught in this web. It was the OHL or NHL for him in 2022-23. After getting a brief cup of coffee with the Kings early in the season, he eventually had to find his way back to the Barrie Colts when there wasn’t a regular roster spot available to him on the Kings roster. In a perfect world, LA management would have assigned him to the AHL instead.
With training camp just a few weeks away, this potential rule change would be a welcome relief to Kings management. Top prospect Liam Greentree was set to be the latest example of a prospect targeted for the OHL when he really should be in the AHL (assuming he doesn’t make the NHL roster, for reasons explained in detail here). Adding even more frustration to the situation is the fact Greentree would miss the current cutoff by just one day, having been born on January 1.
Now, if the two sides can come together and get this new agreement in place for 2025-26 (which is one year earlier than originally expected), the Kings would be allowed to designate one 19-year old prospect for AHL action. That could be Greentree, but it could also be goaltender Carter George instead.
Either way, there’s another consideration in all of this. Both George and Greentree were invited to Team Canada’s World Junior evaluation camp in July. While George is all but guaranteed to make that roster, while Greentree is considered on the bubble, either guy could be in line to miss four-plus weeks with their regular team(s) beginning in early December.
For more information on this very topic — and other potential rule changes for prospects — be sure to check out Jeff Marek and John Hoven on KOTP from a few months ago (listen here).
Lead photo by Megan Sanders
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