NHL teams will soon be able to hire jettisoned coaches and general managers without having to worry about compensation.
At present, clubs like the Boston Bruins, San Jose Sharks, and Pittsburgh Penguins can seek draft picks when the likes of Peter Chiarelli, Todd McLellan, and Dan Bylsma - all of whom were fired by their respective employers - secure new gigs.
There's an increasing sense that this is quite unnecessary, seeing as the new Edmonton Oilers general manager and bench boss, as well as the new Buffalo Sabres head coach, were free agents, so to speak.
As such, the NHL will soon be taking steps to revise these guidelines, as reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet during the "Saturday Headlines" segment on Hockey Night in Canada:
They're going to get together at the Board of Governors meeting, which is going to be in Vegas during the (NHL) Awards, and it's expected this will be straightened out.
They'll say, "Look, if somebody's been fired, you don't get compensation for them." It's only if you get somebody still working for a team. That's the way it's going to work out in the future.
The meeting is scheduled to take place after the Stanley Cup Final and prior to the draft, leaving the ability to scoop picks for essentially nothing decidedly in the past.
