Calder Eligibility

[coffee]

Can someone help me clarify Calder eligibility? I ask because we must start a rookie skater in our league, and we've recently aligned our rookie eligibility with NHL Calder eligibility. The Dobber guide stats that it also aligns with Calder, but it doesn't seem to consider other pro leagues. Here is what I have found as the Calder eligibility statement:

"A player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of any two precedingseasons in any major professional league. To be eligible for this award a player must not have attained his twenty-sixth birthday by September 15th ofthe season in which he is eligible."

So why does the Dobber guide list Kuznetsov and Teravainen as rookies when they have played more than the cutoff amount in the KHL and Finnish Elite League respectively? Am I missing something?

Thanks to anyone who is able to provide feedback!

[Axeman33]

The Calder trophy is an NHL award.

The 25 games not to be exceeded are with the NHL.

[Doug Glatt]

What Axe said. Have never heard the "any major professional league" thing before. Someone might be pulling your leg, or you have a different rule than everyone else uses.

My league uses the Qualification rule for the NHL Hockey Ops Guide:
To be considered a rookie, a player must not have played in more than 25 NHL games in any preceding seasons, nor in six or more NHL games in each of any two preceding seasons. Any player at least 26 years of age (by September 15th of that season) is not considered a rookie. From NHL Hockey Operations Guide http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26377

[newfcollins]

Those leagues don't really count for whatever weird reason. That rule came into play after Makarov won it back in 1989, I believe, because he was old and played professional hockey in Russia for years. Valeri Nichushkin played in the KHL for example, but he was still eligible for the Calder last season.

The 25 games in a preceding season is used mostly for NHL players. So if an NHL player played 26 games last year, then he wouldn't be eligible for the Calder. Or if he played eight games one year and then 10 games the following year, he's not eligible for the Calder.

Holtby is a good example of this. He played 14 games one year, then seven the following year. So in 2012-13, when he had a 23-12-1 record with four shutouts, he wasn't eligible for the Calder.

[Dakkster]

The "in any major professional league" is an old reference to the WHA, or if another similar league should pop up. It does not apply to the AHL, the KHL or the SHL (or any other national leagues). Just the NHL.

[LawMan]

The "in any major professional league" is an old reference to the WHA, or if another similar league should pop up. It does not apply to the AHL, the KHL or the SHL (or any other national leagues). Just the NHL.

Yeah it's kinda funny that when the WHA was around the NHL implemented this rule to deny players who'd been in the WHA the Calder, Most notably Gretzky, but now they seem to ignore the KHL especially.

My guess is the NHL allows KHL/SEL players to be eligible for the Calder because they don't consider those leagues to be on the same level as the NHL. Denying these players Calder eligibility would require the NHL to acknowledge that these other leagues may be catching up to the NHL (especially the K) and the NHL doesn't want to do anything that may acknowledge this.

[Dakkster]

My guess is the NHL allows KHL/SEL players to be eligible for the Calder because they don't consider those leagues to be on the same level as the NHL. Denying these players Calder eligibility would require the NHL to acknowledge that these other leagues may be catching up to the NHL (especially the K) and the NHL doesn't want to do anything that may acknowledge this.

I think that's reading a bit too much into it. The way we divide our leagues into different levels is very different in Europe compared to North America. The KHL is the closest it gets, but that is such a cluster**** that I don't even know where to begin. Anyway, in NA, there's major professional (NHL), minor professional (AHL, ECHL, more?), major junior (CHL), NCAA and probably a whole bunch of levels under major junior that I don't have a clue about. We don't have it that way at all in Europe. Here teams can rise and fall between league tiers and sometimes a team like Brynäs will have a junior team, or a U20 team and then the tier system gets even more complicated.

So the language about "major professional league" is only applicable for the North American setup.

[coffee]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I wasn't sure where that "or any other major professional league" language came from, but it sounds like it's legacy and doesn't apply to really any league. Appreciate the help!