Entry drafts are always an exciting time of the year for sports fans.
No matter which sport you鈥檙e watching, and at what level, you鈥檒l hear about up-and-coming players who are ready to make an impact at the next level in the future.
Sometimes that future is immediate, as most sports allow newly drafted players to play in that league the following season.
In most cases, especially at professional level, that future is down the road, as players take time to develop before they can make an impact at the next level.
For example, it is extremely rare to see a Major League Baseball first-round draft pick play in the Major Leagues that season.
Baseball players generally take the longest to develop as pros.
Spending upwards of four years in the minor leagues before making it to the Big Leagues is not unusual.
There are the exceptions, where a player makes such a difference in the minor leagues that their Major League team decides to use them shortly after being drafted.
Most recently was Brandon Finnegan of the Kansas City Royals, who was drafted 17th overall in the 2014 MLB draft and pitched 27 innings in High-A and AA to the tune of a 1.33 earned run average.
He was then called up to Kansas City, pitched seven innings during the regular season and six in the post season as the Royals went all the way to game seven of the World Series.
In the NHL, NBA and NFL drafts, the first overall picks almost always play for the team that drafts them the following season.
The last time an NHL first overall pick didn鈥檛 play in the NHL the following season was when the St. Louis Blues drafted defenceman Erik Johnson in 2006.
He played one year at the University of Minnesota before turning pro the following season.
In the NBA and NFL, a player has to declare themselves eligible for the draft and cannot return to the NCAA after being drafted.
The first overall pick in those leagues always plays, whether it鈥檚 a big role or smaller role.
The Western Hockey League draft is different.
First off, it鈥檚 called the WHL Bantam Draft because they draft players out of bantam.
That means they are drafting kids who are, or are turning 15 years old.
In the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior League kids are drafted at 16, and first-round picks often play on whatever team drafts them the following year.
There have only been four 15-year-olds drafted into the OHL, and those were the players who were granted 鈥渆xceptional status鈥� and deemed good enough to play major junior a year younger than usual.
It鈥檚 worked out pretty well so far, as three of those four, John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid, have been or will be first overall picks into the NHL.
The fourth, defenceman Sean Day, probably won鈥檛 be drafted first overall in 2016, but could be a top-10 pick.
Players drafted into the WHL cannot play as regulars the following season.
They are allowed to play as 鈥渁ffiliated players鈥� for a maximum of five games, and once their midget team has been eliminated they can be called up full time for the remainder of the season.
It鈥檚 not unusual to see WHL teams call up their first-round pick at the end of the year to practice and play with them during the playoffs.
Personally, I just don鈥檛 understand it.
Why not draft kids at age 16 and have them play full time that season?
Why draft these kids a year early, only to not be able to see them play for you for another season?
Last week, The Hockey News did a story on the WHL draft, and why kids are drafted out of bantam and not midget.
鈥淥ur primary reason was demographic. We have multiple school districts across the Western provinces and the U.S.. A player may be from Manitoba, but drafted into Oregon (Portland Winter Hawks).鈥�
That was WHL commissioner Rob Robison鈥檚 answer as to why kids are drafted a year earlier than the other two major junior leagues.
That would make sense if the kids who are drafted moved to wherever they were drafted the following season, but they don鈥檛.
They don鈥檛 move and get ready to go to school there, they stay at home where they鈥檝e lived for the first 15 years of their life.
So what difference does getting drafted a year early make?
I personally believe the WHL drafts these kids a year early to try and get them to stay away from the NCAA.
They want the homegrown talent to stay at home and play major junior, which makes sense.
Once a kid commits to play for a major junior team, they cannot receive an NCAA scholarship.
NCAA schools are just like major junior teams, they try to identify talent as early as possible and get them to commit to play for them once they hit 18 or 19 years old.
It鈥檚 quite rare for a kid to commit to the NCAA before they play junior A hockey, but it has happened before.
One current example I can think of is Mathias Emilio Pettersen, a kid from Norway who turned 15 on April 3 and is committed to play for the University of Denver beginning in 2017-18.
He could change his mind when he gets drafted by a major junior team, that鈥檚 completely up to him.
Battlefords North Stars coach Kevin Hasselberg has told me multiple times that he believes it is 100 per cent the players decision as to where they want to play in the future.
Kids can commit to play major junior at age 15, or they can commit to play junior A until age 20 looking for an NCAA scholarship.
There are multiple occasions where a player is prepared to go the NCAA route until they are drafted into major junior.
Sometimes that switch is dependant on where they are drafted.
Arizona Coyotes prospect and current London Knights star Max Domi was going the college route when the Kingston Frontenacs drafted him in April 2011.
Four and a half months later he was traded to London, and quickly changed his mind.
I am certain he refused to play for Kingston and wanted to play for London, which I don鈥檛 think is right.
I鈥檒l save my thoughts on that issue for another column.
I truly believe the WHL should change their draft format to the way the OHL and QMJHL does it.
I鈥檓 sure fans would love to see these top prospects suit up for their favourite teams full-time after being drafted, instead of waiting an entire season to see them regularly.
