'Old players at NHL Entry Draft

[SBel]

Hi,

I have a question...

why nhl teams draft old european players?
why they don't sign them right away as a free agent?

By old I mean player like Mark Streit who has 26 years old, he was drafted today by Montreal...

[jb4725]

Unless a player has played 2 seasons in NA, they cannot sign Euros as free agents. European based players must be drafted. At the same time, while kids from NA juniors must be signed 2 years after being drafted, Euros can be drafted at 18, and left to play in europe until they are 25, or players that flew under the radar screen that have breakout years in weak drafts get picked by teams that might be able to use that player right away.
JB

[lynn]

Mark Streit has played in the US before, as a free agent????
played a few games for the Utah Grizzlies IHL
if he was a draftee at that time it would have been the Islanders???
i assume he wants another go at making the NHL- probably better prepared to deal with the North American style now that he is older -which is probably another reason to draft Europeans who haven't played NA junior at an older age / bigger /stronger /mentally tougher than an 18 yr old-with a few exceptions---of course

[Portuguese_Hockey_Rules]

Teams want cheap players who can play right away. For example, the Minnesota Wild took Lubomir Sekeres In the 8th round in their first ever draft, and he played right away with the Wild.

[Unregistered]

Ok... if jb4725 is right. How the Calgary Flames are able to signed Patrik Nilson on July 6?

This guy is the younger brother of Marcus Nilson, he only played one season in north america with Laredo Buck in the CHL and a few games with San Antonio Rampage of the AHL last season??

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=51388
http://www.calgaryflames.com/cgi-bin/news/comments.cgi?type=press_rel&file_num=0000001015

[jb4725]

Nilson was suspended for doping in Europe.
JB