The Puck Stops Here

Today, the Philadelphia Flyers signed Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. TSN's story is here. This is significant because they were chosen in the 2003 entry draft and by the CBA in existence at that time, they should have been allowed to re-enter the draft when they were not signed by June 1st of this year (which they were not due in part to the lockout). I have written previously on this issue here and here. Since the clock all other contracts ran during the lockout, it was only logical that it would have on these players too, but it didn't. This seems like an unfair stretch of logic to me. Philadelphia has no problem letting go of players they don't want who are under contract but they manage to keep those who were not signed.

It was negotiated into the CBA that these potential draft re-entries could be signed by their 2003 drafting team until July 28th (tomorrow). If they are unsigned, they can re-enter the draft. So far, Patrick O'Sullivan has not signed with Minnesota and Marc-Antoine Pouliot has not signed with Edmonton. Both may re-enter the draft if they are not signed in the next day or so.

NOTE: Here is Bob McKenzie's take on the signings. The Flyers played hardball with these two not offering them the best bonus schedule in the CBA work entry level players. That is completely contradictory with Bobby Clarke's quote:

I would say these two kids will be easy to sign because they're going to get the maximum they're allowed. They earned it. You try not to give away money, but they earned the right to get the most. As soon as the CBA is done and we get a look at it and know what we can pay, we'll be able to get it done.

Clarke said this on July 11th.

NOTE #2: As of 2:20 PM Central Time on Thursday, I noticed that Minnesota has signed O'Sullivan. TSN's story is here.

NOTE #3: As of 6:30 PM Central Time on Thursday, I see that Edmonton has signed Pouliot. TSN's story is here. It looks like there won't be any significant players re-entering the draft.