The same rules that will keep John Tavares out of the NHL will prevent him from playing in the AHL next season, despite attempts by the Toronto Maple Leafs to sign the 17-year-old phenom to a minor pro contract.
AHL president David Andrews, responding to reports that the Maple Leafs have offered Tavares a contract to play for the Toronto Marlies next season, said the league’s by-laws with respect to player eligibility are the same as the NHL’s. AHL by-law 2(d) states that only players who have reached their 18th birthday by Sept. 15 of that season are eligible to play.
Andrews said the rule could be changed with a 75 percent approval from the league’s board of governors, but didn’t seem optimistic that would happen.
“Giving you the benefit of my 20 years of experience on the board, it hasn’t been very often that an amendment to our by-laws relative to players has been approved when it affects competitive balance,” Andrews told thehockeynews.com. “Those three-quarters of the teams that would need to vote in favor are going to have to play against this guy.”
Players under the age of 18 have played in the minors in the past, notably Radek Bonk, Petr Sykora and Sergei Samsonov, but all played in the defunct International Hockey League and not the AHL.
Tavares, who is not eligible to be drafted into the NHL until 2009, leads the OHL in scoring with 15 goals and 28 points in 12 games. Last season he was named Canadian Major Junior Hockey player of the year after scoring 72 goals (beating Wayne Gretzky’s record for 16-year-olds) and 134 points in 67 games.
Asked if there is anything in an OHL player’s standard contract that would prevent him from jumping to the AHL, OHL commissioner David Branch told thehockeynews.com: “I’m really not familiar with this story. In terms of some of the legal aspects, the National Hockey League (is) who should respond.”
Both the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail reported the Leafs hope to sign Tavares to a three-year contract and then convince him to forego the 2009 draft and then declare himself an unrestricted free agent in 2011.
Thestar.com says the Leafs would like to pursue one of three options: sign Tavares to a one-year AHL deal and then release him to the NHL draft when he is eligible; sign him to a multi-year deal and then trades his rights to the NHL team that drafts him or; sign him to a three-year deal with the Marlies, have him ignore the team that drafts him in 2009 so he’ll be free to sign with Toronto as a UFA in 2011.
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