thought that making eligibility depend only on players' age (without exceptions) would make things simpler and clearer.Sensfanjosh wroteCOLONNot gonna lie I understood the rules same as Scott makes more sense for players who are waiver draft eligible to not be entry draft eligible. However the red brown part highlighted by Mik above does anticipate this situation so despite my own understanding (or assumption) gotta side with Lee and Mik on this one.
For whatever reason, failed miserably at that lol.
Also, fact was, the signed/unsigned players thing would have brought some uncertainty during the draft: you may trade up to draft an eligible player, and before your pick comes around that player gets signed, making him not eligible anymore.
Or even worse, the news comes out soon after you make the pick, making it impossible to determine if the signing happened before or after your pick.
Then you can have players just drafted in the NHL and signed right after, before they get picked in our still ongoing draft, making them never ever eligible in our draft.