At the very least, there should be an exemption for 1st round picks. Also, what happens if an NHL team just doesn’t let their prospect go back to juniors? A lot of kids are probably better off just practicing with the NHL team all year vs playing against 16 and 17 year olds.
- abasin

They team would likely get fined and the player would be deemed ineligible to play with any affiliated teams (i.e. AHL/ECHL).

They team would likely get fined and the player would be deemed ineligible to play with any affiliated teams (i.e. AHL/ECHL).
- jmatchett383

I mean we basically did that with Sprong for a bit. We kept him here basically not playing until like Thanksgiving. Feel like the only reason we sent him away was because he was getting pissy and telling the media how good his corsi was.

The top 4 picks of the 2014 NHL draft are in the finals...3 of them on the Cats.

Craig Button has to be one of the most dunce dudes around hockey I've ever listened to. He's on TSN a lot up here as an analyst and I always find it baffling he was given GM duties of a NHL team in his life. This is the guy who put Marty St. Louis on waivers, traded young goalie stud Jean-Sebastion-Giguere to the Ducks and basically gave away Marc Savard for nothing (a Russian who never ended up having a single NHL shift).

Having said all of that, I'm sure he is right sometimes and I certainly hope this is one of them haha
- MattStrat

I'm with you man. I can't get too excited when it feels like Button is the only one saying that. I don't even think he'd be considered most NHL ready on his own team, let alone the tournament, unless you're giving a ton of weight to Yager's defensive game.

Can you put on 10lbs in the offseason... even at that age it is a stretch (unless sauce is involved). But it wouldnt be productive even if you could. You would have to eat, lift weights and rest. Conditioning would have to suffer and with that skill training.

I wouldn't worry about his weight. Yes, he will want to get bigger and stronger, but you can get by being a lightweight better in today's NHL than in the past. Goal for him should be to put on 10-15lbs by the beginning of next season, a year from now.
- MacPatty

That's more reasonable. But he did manage to put on 5-7 in good weight since training camp while playing at a high level so maybe it isn't impossible. But probably another 5 is realistic which may be enough if the rest of his game is ready.

What were the difference in stats between Yager and Savoie? Could you argue Yager in the WHL would hinder his development?