The NHL 18 Year Old Draft Review

The NHL draft is one of the most exciting and promising times for most of the hockey franchises in the NHL but it comes with some flaws. Many people have said that the draft is the most important time of the year for teams to rebuild there rosters. Many scouts have said though that eighteen is to young for the draft. Players are not fully developed and or have not even grown into there bodies yet when it is there draft year. Teams go to the draft table and draft highly thought of prospects only to find a couple years latter that their prospect is a dud. For some reason or another people just don't want to change the tradition of the eighteen year old draft. All other professional sports leagues have shied away from this type of draft because the teams have realized the draft will be more effective if kids stay in university teams, or junior teams where they can play for longer, get more time to play and develop and a better chance to get scouted more accurately. Imagine your team comes last every year, year in and year out. Then this young eighteen year old prodigy comes along who is supposed to be the savior of your team. Then he comes to play for your team but he never grows, he never fills out his body like everyone predicted the tall power forward would. He can't keep up with the bigger higher skilled players and years down the road he is just a memory. The pressure of the eighteen year old draft is also to much pressure for a kid right out of high school to with hold. Many of these kids come out of small sheltered towns and now all of sudden they are in Tampa Bay being criticized every time they take the ice. Although some of the eighteen year old picks do work out very well for some organizations no one wants to draft another Alexandre Daigle. That's this weeks rant on the eighteen year old draft.