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Tkachev Day Cancelled: Go Home

September 30, 2014, 8:56 PM ET [357 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Oh god. OH GOD. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

The NHL has deemed the contract tendered to Vlad Tkachev ineligible based on the CBA. The Oilers were working under the premise that Tkachev was a CHL player as described in the CBA and could be offered a contract if undrafted. Bad news. He wasn’t.

To have the full rights of a CHL player he had to play in the full CHL season right from the start. It’s the fine print in the CBA that isn’t exactly right beside the part that says that a CHL player can be signed if undrafted but still eligible for the next Draft. They missed it and now Tkachev will re-enter the Draft next year, this time with much more notoriety.

He was NEVER going to be eligible for a contract because he played in Russia for a few games and had to wait for some time to be transferred to North America. There are a lot of people at blame here. His agent certainly didn’t set him up to succeed and apparently was none the wiser about his signing ability, the player definitely didn’t know (fine, he’s 18 and has an agent to do that for him), the Oilers scouting staff certainly dropped the ball by assuming they could just invite the kid to camp and sign him instead of using one of their precious late picks on him, and the Oilers’ management dropped the ball the most.

It is their job to know who they can and cannot sign, and while the CBA is a jumbled mess of legalese in a lot of places, they have to have this stuff figured out. The only saving grace for them is that NOBODY seemed to clue into this rule and exception. I saw nobody on the blogosphere point this out and Tkachev has been here for 2 weeks. That might seem like faint praise, but the Oilers blogging community is sharp and have been on top of these things before (notably with waiver rules in the past).

So Tkachev is NOT an Oiler today. His dream of signing an NHL contract is put on hold and no doubt his wee little heart is a broken mess. And it should be. And yours should be too. This is why we cant have nice things, Edmonton. But who knows, maybe Liam Coughlin will have a better career and we can all laugh about this in 2019 after our 4th Stanley Cup in a Row…Captained by Coughlin.

Tkachev Day is cancelled. Turn in your party hats and get back to the salt mines you wretches. We have a season to slog through until MAYBE he can be drafted by the Oilers*.

*You just KNOW Brian Burke is going to Draft him in the 2nd Round and give Lowe a wink

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