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From: jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson)
Newsgroups: net.sport.hockey
Subject: Re: Rookie of the year
Message-ID: <1381@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 12:17:30 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.1381
Posted: Tue Feb 12 12:17:30 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 12-Feb-85 13:18:03 EST
References: <3822@ucla-cs.ARPA> 
Reply-To: jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 38
Summary: 

At the time when Peter Stastny won the Calder Trophy, the eligibility rule
read something like this:

"To be eligible for the Calder Trophy, a player must not have played more
than 25 games in any one previous season or more than six games in each of
any two previous seasons in the NHL or any other major professional league."

The controversy surrounding Stastny's winning of the award was the "any
other major professional league" part.  If you recall, the year before
Stastny won the award was Wayne Gretzky's first year in the NHL, but he
didn't win the Calder Trophy.  Gretzky played one year in the World Hockey
Association, which was considered a major professional league for the
purposes of Calder Trophy eligibility, so Gretzky and others like Michel
Goulet, Craig Hartsburg, Rick Vaive and Rob Ramage never had a chance to
win the Calder Trophy, even though they were all still of junior age when
they joined the NHL.  (I wish I could remember who did win the Calder that
year.)  There was a lot of furor about it, and the situation was
amplified by Stastny's winning of the award, because Stastny had played
several years in the Czechoslovak first division and had also played for
their national team.  Even though it was major league experience, it was
not considered "professional," so Stastny was eligible.  This seems unfair
and hypocritical because NHL people have been saying for years that the
Czech and Russian players are just as professional as the NHL'ers,
and many of the NHL governors refused to acknowledge that the WHA was a
major league until after it folded.  Incidentally, the International Olympic
Committee ruled last year that the WHA was not professional enough to
disqualify its former players from olympic play, thereby putting it roughly
on par with the Czech first division and putting both of them below the NHL.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I don't remember the rule being changed since
then, but if there has been a change, it most likely would have been the
removal or redefinition of the word "professional."  The leagues that Warren
Young and Carey Wilson played in are not considered "major," so they are
still eligible.  They won't win it though.  It's going to go to Chris Chelios.
-- 
Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto  (416) 635-2073
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