When can an NHL prospect play in the AHL?

Owen Zellweger making his debut in Game 1 of the opening round series. Credit Ontario Reign.

When can my favorite NHL prospect play in the AHL? I see this topic of confusion appear every year so I have decided to make a dedicated page for it here as well as an embedded spreadsheet that will have a list of all the Ducks prospects, which league they were drafted from, where they are playing and when they are able to play with the Gulls.

But first some commonly asked questions:

Q: That player we drafted last year is playing for the Ducks so that means he can be assigned to and play for the Gulls right?

A: Wrong. It all depends on which league a player is drafted from as to the rules that govern their eligibility to play in the AHL. These rules are set by an agreement made between the NHL and the league in which they were drafted from so that the best players cannot be taken from their team before a certain age; leaving their league with a watered down product that makes it therefore harder to market to fans. To further complicate things – the buck stops with whichever team owns the rights to that player – so for example if the player drafted was playing in one of the CHL leagues at the time but was actually loaned to the team in that league by his club in Europe – then the CHL rules/agreement do not apply. Confused? That’s ok – lets break it down league by league.

The leagues that players can be drafted from and the rules in place are as follows.

Jacob Perreault flexes during action against the Bakersfield Condors. Credit San Diego Gulls.

The CHL: This represents most of Junior Hockey in Canada and encompasses the WHL (Western Hockey League), the OHL (Ontario Hockey League) and the QMJHL (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). It is basically the reason I wrote this guide – because a lot of fans get confused about why the likes of Olen Zelwegger could play for the Gulls in a few games at the end of the season but cannot join them for the start of the next season (more on that later). So when can that promised NHL prospect play in AHL? The CHL NHL Transfer Agreement requires all draft picks under the age of 20 to be loaned back to their major junior club unless they are on the NHL roster or have completed four full junior hockey seasons.

Note: The specifics of this rule state that the player must be 20 before January 1st (or midnight December 31st) or to have played four seasons in the CHL.

This was put in place for the reasons I stated above – to prevent the Junior leagues from becoming watered down and bereft of talent. The “age of 20” requirement is also why you sometimes see some players selected from the CHL in the same draft year arrive to the Gulls in different seasons – this is because some players are selected at a slightly older age than the more common “minimum age” for the draft of 18 years old by September 15 of their draft year. These players are commonly called “overagers” but there is also the added nuance of some players birthdays following at the very beginning of the September 15 eligiblity (IE Olen Zellweger and Connor Hvidston) and others falling later on (IE Pavel Mintyukov and Nathan Gaucher). With regard to signing players drafted out of the CHL; NHL teams have two years to put pen to paper with these prospects or they either re-enter the draft or become an unrestricted free agent. The Ducks most recent examples of this are Matthew Hill and Kyle Olson.

NCAA: This one is a bit different – because players are not always drafted while playing in College but are committed to playing for a College team. An example of this is Sasha Pastujov – who was drafted from the US National Development program; which plays in the USHL but whose players are almost all exclusively committed to College teams once they are too old (U18 only) for the program. Pastujov was committed to the University of Notre Dame but instead changed his mind to play for the OHL team which held its rights via their own draft in 2019 – the Guelph Storm. This doesn’t happen all that often though – the more common examples for how it usually works would be Josh Lopina, Trevor Zegras, Sam Colangelo and Jackson LaCombe to name but a few. There isn’t so much as an agreement between the NHL and NCAA so much as a rule that dictates that NCAA players are amateur’s through and through.

“NCAA student-athletes are amateurs and cannot have played for a professional sports team prior to enrollment. In hockey, specifically, this means that anyone who signs a contract with or plays for a team in the Canadian Hockey League (OHL, QMJHL or WHL) forfeits their NCAA eligibility.”

This is also why you don’t see Ducks prospects that are committed to College come to the Rookie camp that takes place just before training camp – because they are not allowed to.

They can not accept payment or gifts based upon their ability as a hockey player.
They can not sign a contract or play a game (even an exhibition game) for a professional team, including those in the CHL.
They can attend a camp with a professional team for up to 48 hours if they are covering expenses or longer if the player cover all expenses.

That final point above is why College drafted players can come to the development camp that takes place after the draft in July – as they are generally only two day camps.

This is also why I have never really been a fan of the Ducks drafting College bound players – for my own selfish reasons – because I don’t get to see them until they are done with College – not even as black aces (more on that later) due to the NCAA amateur rule.

I mentioned Lopina and Zegras at the start of that list of players because they are examples of players that played in College but elected to “turn pro” before their full tertiary tenure was completed. The Ducks selected Lopina after he had a breakout freshman year at UMass and he elected to sign his entry level deal after completing his Sophomore season. Zegras played just one year at BU before signing his entry level deal with the Ducks. Jackson LaCombe and Henry Thrun opted to go the full four year tenure allowed for an NHL team to hold a College players rights. This is the flipside of drafting College bound players – once their Senior season is completed; teams have until August 15th to sign them or they become unrestricted free agents and can sign with any team they choose. The Ducks were the unfortunate victims of this circumstance when 2008 second round pick Justin Schultz signed with Edmonton after withdrawing from school earlier in the season but after the four year period had expired. While more recently Henry Thrun much more graciously let the Ducks brass know ahead of time that he did not plan to sign with them – allowing them to deal him to San Jose for a third round pick.

Lukas Dostal celebrates earning the win and second star. Credit San Diego Gulls.

Europe: I am going to lump in all of the European leagues here though they all have different transfer agreements with the NHL and different signing window times. The SHL has a four year window while the KHL has no agreement with the NHL at all (only a mostly unspoken one not to interfere with each others players contracts). For players drafted out of the KHL – NHL clubs must either wait for their KHL contract to expire or have the player attempt an early release. This is a slightly moot point now given the invasion of Ukraine. As I stated at the top of this article – there is no CHL-NHL-like agreement between the European leagues and the NHL – players drafted from leagues in Europe can generally jump right in to the AHL so long as they are old enough (the minimum age to play in the AHL is 18). The Ducks have shown a certain bias toward drafting players from Sweden and the SHL with Isac Lundestrom, Olle Eriksson Ek being recent examples while Lukas Dostal was drafted out of the Czech Liga before going on to play a couple of seasons in the Finnish Liiga. To sum up – players drafted out of Europe can jump right into the AHL with the exception of the KHL – where teams must play a waiting game on players under contract.

USHL/US High School Leagues/BCHL: Just a short addendum – the Ducks have drafted from these leagues also but generally players taken from the USHL or a US High School League are committed to a College team so they fall under the NCAA category. Similarly the BCHL appears to follow the same formula – Ethan Bowen is an example of a player the Ducks have selected from this league and he was committed to the University of North Dakota before switching to the University of Vermont after the conclusion of his final season at Chilliwack. He has since stepped away from hockey for an unspecified amount of time.

So those are the leagues and their rules/agreements but that still doesn’t explain why Olen Zellweger could join the Gulls near the end of one season but was unable to join them for the start of the following one. Much like Connor Hvidston did this season. That brings us to Black Aces.

Black Aces: The CHL NHL transfer agreement also allows for CHL players to play in the AHL at the conclusion of their current season. Which is why it is fun to keep an eye on various prospects Junior clubs as the Gulls regular season starts to wind down – of course some prospects seasons may not be over before the Gulls is. European players (excepting the KHL) can also join the Gulls after their seasons are concluded but generally this only happens if they plan to make the jump to North America for the next season. NCAA players cannot join the Gulls as a Black Ace unless they forgo the remainder of their amateur status and sign their entry level deal – Judd Caulfiled is the most recent example of this.

Below is a list of Ducks prospects that are yet to make an appearance in the AHL and when they will be able to.

If you want to learn more about the Hockey, the AHL and the NHL read my Hockey 101 piece here.

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NHL prospect play in AHL