Well, we're another week through the season and the NHL continues to forge its way through the decision of what to do with the 2021 Entry Draft.
There are some GMs that want to move it until just before the draft in 2022, while there are so many CBA-related issues that would make that idea a challenge to complete in theory.
I'm not a huge fan of delaying the CCHL draft a year because it would create issues with those picks. Would 2021 picks still be able to be traded in the 21-22 CCHL season? Why? Why not?
If the NHL moves the draft we would likely continue to do our draft this summer at the normal time so we can avoid the issue.
The most ideal scenario for us is that the NHL does the draft in July and then we start ours after theirs is complete. I think this is the most beneficial scenario even though it doesn't allow the league the usual July/August shutdown period.
I really do think if the NHL does it in July that we should follow that draft rather than just completing ours in June as we normally do. I think the pandemic has shown us last year just how unpredictable the draft is and with the massively shortened seasons in the CHL, European players we know little about will likely be at the forefront again for the 2021 draft.
I do think that the next two-years will be fun because we will see a record number of overage signings from the CHL because teams will have just missed on so many players. I can't blame the scouts because you can't scout what isn't playing hockey but when the CHL resumes a full season (hopefully in September) there will likely be scouts really surprised with the improvements of many players because of their off-ice and off-season training.
These are certainly some wild times in history so whatever we decide to do, it isn't going to be perfect this year at all. I guess we shouldn't be surprised given the last year but we'll do our best to navigate the draft this year before hopefully getting back to normal for what looks to be a solid 2022 group of prospects!
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