On Thursday January 16th, TJHN reported on several key rule change proposals that would affect all levels of Junior Hockey in the United States. Many of these rule change proposals were designed to protect players and promote player development as well as the player’s ability to move up through the levels of play.
One of these proposals was designed to eliminate Tier II team ability to trade players to Tier III. This is the proposal:
http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0047/9601/LP_2014_Junior_1_Hockey_Trades.pdf
Sources are now reporting that this proposal did not receive any support at Junior Council meetings and the change was not made. Players can still be traded from Tier II to Tier III.
The thoughts behind this voting down of the proposed rule change was that some players do not want to be released and enter the “free agent” market. Some teams and players thought that they should be able to decide what team they are traded to.
Players can always choose to not report to any Tier III team if they are traded from Tier II.
The question is, if they do not report to the Tier III team after the trade, are they free to go to Canada or any other Tier III team they choose in the United States? Reportedly, those issues are still being discussed.
TJHN will update this story as more information becomes available.
