WHY IS THE NAHL DRAFT STILL A THING? When operational standards are suggestions, and not hard rules, why force players into questionable situations?

I’ve been asking coaches and owners within the North American Hockey League if they could share the current version of the league’s Team Operational Standards that the league set for themselves. For some reason, those standards are now buried within the top-secret affiliation agreement the league has with USA Hockey.

As a result of the secret standards, higher-end prospects are hearing about nightmare situations and deciding that the British Columbia Hockey League and other Canadian leagues can provide a better opportunity. Not to be outdone, now Saskatchewan is getting in on the raid by essentially matching the cost-to-player numbers of the United States Hockey League.

One NAHL coach said it best yesterday. “We are already losing recruiting battles to the BCHL,” the coach said. “Higher end prep-school players see the mess in Danbury for themselves and can only assume that’s representative of the entire league, so they go to the BCHL. It’s also clear that college coaches are pushing players there as well.”

That’s a big problem for the NAHL. Likely even worse than the league office talent drain to Black Bear Sports and the United States Premier Hockey League.

While we are still hearing stories of the ridiculous fees being charged by the Brown Bears, it now appears that others continue to lower the bar with ever increasing monthly billet and "activity" fees.

What should the league do to stop the bleeding? The easy answer is to eliminate the Draft entirely or limit it to first year eligible players only. That would be 2010 birth-year players for next summer.

The biggest problem with continuing the draft is the league has dropped to Plan D for most top end prospects. It's very clear that players will now consider the Canadian Hockey League as their top choice. The United States Hockey League and British Columbia Hockey League are also clear choices ahead of the NAHL. 

With that in mind, what's the point of drafting those younger players knowing there is a high likelihood of that talent jumping to a higher level league at the first opportunity. 

Dumping the draft entirely makes the most sense. Doing so would also dramatically force operators into doing more to retain players.

Imagine the chaos when teams must recruit and retain players the old-fashioned way, by doing things the right way in the first place. Earning players' trust back won’t be easy, but there’s nothing like an open and free flow of talent when it comes to motivating teams into keeping up with the big dogs.

Don’t want to do that?

Then there is the real threat of teams (or entire divisions) breaking off to join other leagues or simply do their own thing. Let’s face reality here, Elmira and Anchorage are not the same. The Northeast Generals and Corpus Christi IceRays are not the same. Heck, there’s really no comparing Minot to Springfield either.

While new NAHL membership fees continue to rise into the million dollar plus range, the league continues to take hit after hit from substandard operators making a mockery of the level of play.

All this because of unpublished, and clearly unenforced, operational standards? It’s almost as bad as living in California. Almost.

There is a workable solution to the problems.

First, limit active protected rosters to seventeen players. Allow up to five players to be placed on a verified injury reserve. This would put an end to the practice of stockpiling players.

Next, freeze active rosters the Sunday before the last week of the season. Allow only NA3HL call-ups to replace injured players during that final week of the season and playoffs.

Most importantly, stop lying to players. Force teams to declare the protected roster on the first day of every off-season month and then 24 hours before each game. This has to be public information. Doing so would give potential prospects a clear understanding of the team's needs.

These changes would not only create more balance within the league, they would also dramatically enhance the developmental opportunity. The side benefit is the automatic 30%+ reduction in the costs of transportation, hotels, meals, and even equipment. 

Here's the problem, these operators and coaches have egos that far exceed their individual levels of common sense. Owners always want to win and coaches always want to limit the arsenals of their opponents. 

Trust the players and give them a system they could thrive in. This concept might be the best chance the NAHL has of ever climbing out of that fourth position and actually giving the USHL and BCHL some competition for second.

Well, that and the elimination of the restricted number of major junior veterans on the roster might do the trick. More on that tomorrow.