Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

HOCKEY 101:

Diving into the makeup of an NHL roster

Golden Knights Open House

L.E. Baskow

Fans gather at the Goose Island Beer Company to watch some telecasted hockey within the T-Mobile Arena as the Golden Knights hockey team holds a 24-hour open house on Tuesday, February 21, 2017.

The way NHL teams handle player personnel is similar to baseball. Franchises can move players between their club and affiliated minor-league teams.

An active NHL roster is surprisingly small — only 23 players.

Teams must have a minimum of 20 active players (12 forwards, six defenders and two goalies) but most will carry the full 23 because injuries often occur during games. Players placed on the injured reserve do not count against the 23-man limit and can still participate in practice and travel with the team.

If a player is placed on the injured reserve, he can’t return to play for at least seven days.

The number of players “belonging” to a club is much larger. Teams can have as many as 80 players in their organizations at a time.

But only 50 of them can be professional players spread across all tiers of the minor leagues, with the rest made up of signed junior players with less than 11 professional games and unsigned draft choices.

Unlike in the NFL and NBA, players can remain in either junior hockey leagues or in college after being drafted by an NHL team. Many players in the NCAA’s Frozen Four tournament, for example, are already drafted.

This year’s national champion, University of Denver, had six NHL draftees on its roster.

Once a player turns 20, he can no longer play in juniors and must move to either the NHL or one of the lesser professional leagues like the American Hockey League or the ECHL.

Players must be at least 18 years old to play in the AHL, and 13 of a team’s 18 active players must be considered “development players” — meaning they have 260 or fewer pro games.

Players who are sent down to the AHL must pass through waivers — meaning every other team in the league has an opportunity to claim them — unless they are classified as a development player.

The AHL is the NHL’s equivalent to Triple-A baseball. The Vegas Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate is the Chicago Wolves.

The ECHL, therefore, is more like Double-A. The Quad City Mallards, located in Moline, Ill., are the Golden Knights’ ECHL affiliate.

The Golden Knights do not own the Wolves or the Mallards, but many NHL teams own their minor-league franchises.

The Golden Knights do, however, control personnel, coaching and management decisions to develop their prospects the way they want.

There are a number of smaller leagues in North America like the Federal Hockey League, the Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey and the Southern Professional Hockey League, but most aren’t affiliated with the NHL.

Jesse Granger can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Jesse on Twitter at twitter.com/JesseGranger_.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy