EHM The Blue Line

I thought this was weird when it happened during my first year, prospect Alex Kerfoot, who was enjoying a pretty good season at Harvard (I think it was his Sophomore or Junior season) decided he wanted to sign in France. Obviously, I had no control over what he could do and he ended up signing there, effectively stalling his development in a poor league.

This year, another NCAA prospect, Brett Seney, who was playing his sophomore year and had improved 10 pts over his freshman year, started fielding contract offers, you guessed it, from France. He also signed there. Is it just me or is that completely unrealistic that:
1-An NCAA player would quit school to go play in a low-level Euro league
2-That the team would have no say in what they would want for their prospect?

Another issue that I feel is kinda related is that I have 2 Euro prospects and one prospect who I drafted out of the OJHL who state that they wanna play Canadian junior hockey. They are all good enough for the CHL level, yet none was drafted in the Import draft (for my 2 Czechs) or signed by a CHL team. Is there any way to force this (I wanted to create a GM for a CHL team and sign all 3, but since that league is not active in my save, I can't). I'm fine with that OJHL player playing there for his draft +1 year, but I'll be pretty mad if he is still playing there next year as that would be completely unrealistic and would be a wasted development year IMO (and no, I don't want to sign him to play him in the AHL).

Kerfoot wasn't a sophomore, but at fourth year, in the DB his contract is set to run out after 16-17 so I don't see anything wrong. NHL teams have no say for their prospect.
Who are the Czech players you're talking about?

One of the Czech guys is Matej Chalupa, the other I think is Dennis Ondracek (sure about the last name, not the first name), who I'm not sure is a real player. OJHL player is Kory Bruni who I think is also a game-generated player.

yoteshot wrote:Is it just me or is that completely unrealistic that:
1-An NCAA player would quit school to go play in a low-level Euro league

I'm not sure what the answer is (IRL data would be needed), but off the top of my head it doesn't necessarily seem unrealistic to me

yoteshot wrote:
Another issue that I feel is kinda related is that I have 2 Euro prospects and one prospect who I drafted out of the OJHL who state that they wanna play Canadian junior hockey. They are all good enough for the CHL level, yet none was drafted in the Import draft (for my 2 Czechs) or signed by a CHL team. Is there any way to force this (I wanted to create a GM for a CHL team and sign all 3, but since that league is not active in my save, I can't). I'm fine with that OJHL player playing there for his draft +1 year, but I'll be pretty mad if he is still playing there next year as that would be completely unrealistic and would be a wasted development year IMO (and no, I don't want to sign him to play him in the AHL).

yoteshot wrote:One of the Czech guys is Matej Chalupa, the other I think is Dennis Ondracek (sure about the last name, not the first name), who I'm not sure is a real player. OJHL player is Kory Bruni who I think is also a game-generated player.

I can't look into Ondracek/Bruni at they're game generated players, but Chalupa isn't and IMO it's maybe a bit odd that Chalupa would even be in the NCAA and for sure really odd for a Major Junior team to have any interest

I don't see Chalupa as being worth signing for a CHL team (there's no evidence he'll ever be an NHLer...over NHL draft age Europeans with little chance of ever playing in the NHL aren't likely to want to play in the CHL nor is a CHL team likely to want/draft them; he's been draftable for years and yet no Major Junior team drafted him, nor was he drafted by an NHL team at 18 or 19)

Despite his older age Chalupa's CA in the current DB is 65 (that's below average when compared to peers in Major Junior or the NCAA!), and his PA is only -13 (he's not going to ever develop as a significant NHL player)...I don't see why a Major Junior team would want an overage player that is currently at best "average" (and likely a below average player in terms of Attributes) + very unlikely to even make the NHL/no chance of ever being a significant NHLer...I don't think this is the type of player that Major Junior teams bring in at age 18+

Also, his Attributes are all set to "0" so he could easily get a low Adaptability rating at startup and thus not do well in NA and want to "leave early" if he did come (Ambition may be low too, making NA less of a draw)

Weird, I drafted Chalupa around the 5th or 6th round and he has been doing great in Europe (not NCAA) in the top Czech league, being top 3 scorer on his team. But in his case, yeah I get why CHL teams wouldn't pick him up, just based on age maybe. Don't know for Bruni as he's in the OJHL with hopes of playing canadian junior, but oh well.

As for Kerfoot and Seney, I'd love to see numbers, but pretty sure that's almost unheard of for prospects who are not done with college and whose rights still belong to a team. And even if they ended up wanting to leave school, the team would have a long and hard discussion with the prospect as far as his future plans are concerned. They would certainly not let him leave the NCAA to go play in some low level Euro League like France. Seney's case is even weirder as he had only played his sophomore season, in which he improved a lot from his freshman year and was starting to look like an option for my AHL team next year or the year after. Now I don't envision him developing anytime soon.

Database/Reputation issue maybe? I know Kerfoot is being linked to NHL teams.

What's his 'junior' preference?