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What To Make Of The "Wright Exemption" |
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This has kind of flown under the radar but it's something I think deserves to be discussed: Elliotte Friedman mentioned recently on 32 Thoughts that the AHL and CHL (specifically, the Ontario Hockey League) reached an agreement that would allow 19-year-old Seattle Kraken prospect Shane Wright to play this season with the AHL's Coachella Valley Firebirds if he does not make the Kraken roster out of training camp.
However, no such exception has -- or will be -- granted to Buffalo Sabres prospect Matt Savoie. The 19-year-old prospect, who has been dealing with an injury and missing time early in camp with Buffalo, would be obligated by the Western Hockey League to play for the Wenatchee Wild in 2023-24 if he's not in the NHL with the Sabres rather than the AHL's Rochester Americans.
I know that Wright dressed for the Calder Cup finalist Firebirds throughout the playoffs last season. However, I think the AHL "age rule" for players under 20 should either apply for everyone -- there's already exemptions for teenage players drafted out of Europe and for teenage NCAA players who turn pro, because the age rule exists only for CHL players -- or have certain exemptions for CHL players.
For example, during the pandemic, players in the OHL were exempted from the age rule and allowed to play in the AHL because the 2020-21 Ontario League season was canceled. That exemption allowance continued into 2021-22 despite the OHL's return; for example, Philadelphia Flyers prospect Tyson Foerster was allowed to remain in the AHL and opened the campaign in the American League until he suffered a shoulder injury that kept him out most of the season.
I can understand the "pandemic exemptions" in 2020-21 and the carryover into 2021-22. However, as far as Wright and Savoie go, I think there should be a single standard. What if Coachella Valley had gone out early in the Calder Cup playoffs rather than reaching the championship round? Should it matter?
Wright was the 4th pick of the 2021 Draft. Savoie was the ninth pick.
Wright turns 20 on January 5, 2004. Savoie turns 20 on January 1, 2024.
By the letter of the CHL/AHL law, neither "should" be eligible for the AHL this year. Wright, like Savoie, has not yet met the NHL games played exemption for AHL eligibility. It's by one game, but then again, players born on Sept. 16 or 17 have been ruled ineligible for the NHL Draft because the rule says Sept. 15 is the cut-off. How is this different? It isn't!
Now the can of worms has been cracked all the way open. Wright is officially now AHL eligible, Savoie is not.
I don't think it's fair or makes the least bit of sense. Frankly, after the pandemic, the rule should have been amended for everyone once in for all: Perhaps all NHL organizations should have been granted one/two exemptions per year for 19-year-old CHL prospects to play in the AHL, and choose which player. That would seem to me to much more logical, fair and systematic. But since when has "logical", "fair" or "systematic" actually applied to entry-level contracts or AHL eligibility? It hasn't.
What do you think about it? It will be interesting to see the perspectives in the comments.
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