The Kitchener Rangers find themselves at the epicenter of a debate they wished to have never been included in.
The debate revolves around 19-year-old forward Jeremy Morin, a player the Rangers fully expected back this season. Morin instead found his way to the American Hockey League a year earlier than most of his Canadian Hockey League brethren from last season would otherwise have been eligible.
An agreement between the CHL and National Hockey League stipulates that no junior player is eligible for the AHL unless he is 20-years-old or has played four seasons of major junior.
Morin, of course, fits neither criteria. That agreement is only in place for prospects drafted from a major junior team -- Morin was selected by Atlanta as a member of the U.S. National Team Development Program a year ago.
Now the Rangers are left with a huge hole to fill offensively, made even larger by the presumed loss of Jeff Skinner to the Carolina Hurricanes.
"To see Jeff play regularly in Carolina is great, but the tough one for me is having Jeremy in the American Hockey League," Rangers head coach and general manager Steve Spott said.
Spott thought he would have Morin back in the fold, until his rights were dealt to Chicago as part of the Dustin Byfuglien trade days before the NHL draft. Thrashers general manager Rick Dudley had informed Spott his intentions were to return Morin to Kitchener where he would have a shot at capturing junior hockey glory.
The Blackhawks, meanwhile, have been less forthcoming. Spott said he hasn't had "any dialogue with the Blackhawks" regarding Morin's future, where the forward now appears to be settling into the AHL for good.
That decision gave the Rangers a bitter pill to swallow while stirring up the debate as to whether CHL teams should be left vulnerable to losing veteran players.
"It's not up to me to decide the rules," Spott said. "On the front lines, yeah, it's very discouraging because you've got these kids and you really need them to be great at 19 and to have them jump to the American Hockey League, not the National Hockey League, is concerning to me as a coach. But those are the cards that I'm dealt and I'll just have to deal with them."
Morin is the first, but certainly might not be the last to make the AHL jump from junior at 19. The Windsor Spitfires and London Knights have first-year players in goaltender Jack Campbell and defenceman Jarred Tinordi, respectively. Like Morin, both Campbell and Tinordi were drafted from the USNTDP, meaning they would be eligible for the AHL.
The current rule is in place to avoid having veteran-aged junior players plucked from a championship-aspiring team like the Rangers. The loophole might mean teams like the Rangers might be more hesitant to draft and recruit high-profile American players who could be one-and-done in the CHL.
"I know it's something that we're going to have to be aware of," Spott said. "I know it's something that our league, I would assume will look into, because it will have an impact on our drafting of players."
That could be a year too late for the Rangers, whose Memorial Cup goals are severely hampered by the losses of Morin and Skinner. The duo combined for 97 goals in last year's regular season and 32 more in the playoffs, yet Kitchener sits atop the league in goals scored so far this season.
Part of the reason the Rangers have been so successful out of the gate in spite of the losses of Skinner and Morin is due to the development and maturation of a pair of rookies from last season. Swedish forward Gabriel Landeskog and defenceman Ryan Murphy asserted themselves as leaders in the place of their departed teammates.
Murphy and Landeskog are potential top-10 picks for this summer's NHL draft, meaning the Rangers could be in a similar position next season.
"It's good and bad for me because they're both great players this year, but I don't know if they'll be back at 19 either," Spott said. "They've been everything I was expecting and more. Those two guys have carried our hockey club."
Losing them to the NHL next season, however, could be easier to handle since Spott is already preparing for it. And it's a goal Murphy readily admits is on his list of achievements.
"I want to play (in the NHL) as soon as possible," Murphy said. "I want to be ready for when that happens."
Spott insists the team's goal to contend for the Ontario Hockey League championship this season remains intact no matter how much more difficult it will be without his stars. In order to obtain that goal, the team will need to keep reaching for new heights unforeseen before the season.
But they won't need to look far for motivation. A phrase adorning their dressing room wall reads: Raise The Bar. With the unexpected loss of Morin, that bar needs to be raised a little higher.
