The KHL wants your children!

Now that Russia's KHL is on-board with strict standards regarding "contract jumping" between leagues, they've taken the next logical step in their quest to compete with the NHL for elite talent. They've held an Entry Draft that targets 17 year-olds, players who are still one year away from eligibility for the NHL Entry Draft.

The press release from the KHL along with the draft listing follows after the jump, and there are some interesting names included. Do you think Victor Hedman might rather play for Spartak Moscow than in the NHL? And what's Jiri Tlusty doing on there? Is the KHL going to come out with a "Naughty Boys of Russian Hockey" calendar or something?

Results of KHL Junior Entry Draft

 

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) held its first junior entry draft today with 23 KHL clubs selecting players with a minimum age of 17 years old.  The 91 draftees came from the following categories: graduates of non-KHL Russian hockey schools, graduates of KHL club hockey schools with no contractual obligation to the parent KHL club and international (non-Russian) hockey players.

 

The draft procedure consisted of four rounds, with the initial sequence reflecting the clubs’ results from the KHL’s 2008/2009 season.   As is customary in other professional sports drafts, KHL clubs were able to trade selection positions both prior to and during the draft.

 

The first pick of the KHL junior entry draft was 20 year old defenseman Mikhail Pashnin of Chelyabinsk by CSKA Moscow.  CSKA moved up in the draft moments before it began by trading their position in the first, second and third rounds to Dynamo Minsk for the opportunity to pick first overall.

 

Selecting today’s draft picks gives the players’ rights to the KHL club, but does not obligate the player to immediately terminate his contract with his current team.  KHL clubs have the exclusive right to finalize a contract with their draftees from Russian hockey schools until April 30^th of the year in which the player will turn 22 years old.  The term of the initial contract will also run until April 30^th of the year the player turns 22 years of age.  Meanwhile, KHL clubs hold the right to finalize contracts with international hockey players selected in the KHL junior entry draft until April 30^th of the year the player turns 28 years old.

 

If a player has not been invited to sign a contract by the team that selected him in the KHL junior entry draft by August 1, 2009, the player has the right to negotiate with any other international (non-KHL) hockey club.  If a player refuses to sign a contract with the KHL team who selected him, the club reserves the player’s KHL rights until April 30^th of the year in which the player turns 28 years old.

The first sentence in that last paragraph is quite interesting; if you're a Swedish player, for example, who gets drafted by a KHL club, what leverage could they possibly have to say that your rights to negotiate with another international team don't apply until August 1? If such a player (of sufficient age) were selected in the NHL draft later this month and wanted to sign with an NHL club, I would think he'd be perfectly free to do so - the KHL doesn't get "dibs" just because one of their clubs drafted him first. Drafts only apply to player rights within a league, not across them.

Here's the complete list of the four-round draft. Check out some of the names, as KHL clubs have chosen a few North American players along with the expected raft of Russian youngsters: