Oh... one more thing to point out :)

I don't think Reid Duke is fair to compare to Daigle in terms of being a "first player" thing. I can't find any transactional data on the Senators to see what they might have done post NHL deadline, but pre-draft, in their first season. I'm guessing the answer is "nothing" because players like Reid Duke didn't exist back then.

The NHL used to have a "Supplemental Draft" instead of College Free Agents. I'm not exactly sure what the rules were.... in 9 years that draft lead to only 11 players that suited up for 100+ NHL Games. Corey Cross and John Cullen are probably the two biggest names that came from it.

I can't find anything to back up my memory of it - but that draft was College players who were ineligible for the Entry Draft... I believe because they were too old (21+) but I think also were never drafted. Again, my memory is a little fuzzy on it.... but I think NHL teams retained rights to their draft picks for a longer period of time.

The 1994-95 NHL lockout, and the new CBA that followed, I'm sure did away with the Supplemental draft (the last one was in 1994). Undrafted College players, after graduation, were just free agents at that point (like they are now). Back then there were plenty of drafted players that were playing NCAA hockey (Doug Weight & Paul Karyia come to mind as big name players that went the college route, instead of Major Junior). As I said... I'm pretty sure back then, if you drafted a player you held onto their rights much longer..... but I can't find any examples of NCAA guys getting drafted, and then signing with that team more than 2 years after the pick. I seem to think that they had 4 or 5 years (or something like that) to sign the player though.... much longer than they have now.


Anyway, I will lump players coming out of the NCAA into 3 categories:

1. Drafted by team, and signed with that team
2. Drafted by team, left unsigned, and becomes UFA
3. Undrafted, graduates, is UFA

The first type happens a lot. Jack Eichel is a recent one. Plays NCAA, gets drafted, signs.

The second type is a weird one. Justin Shultz is a recent(ish) example. He was drafted by Anaheim in 2008.... was playing College hockey. He never signed, but he doesn't just go back into the entry draft two years later (like an unsigned major junior player would). I think by electing to maintain his NCAA eligibility, he's also giving the team that drafted him an extension on his rights.... so they had a 4 year window to sign him. Once that window closed (the summer after his senior year) because he is too old for the NHL Entry Draft, he becomes an UFA, and can go anywhere.

The third is a player like Reid Duke, or Jimmy Vessey, or Matt Benning, and lots of other guys in recent years.

After the Supplimental draft, if a Reid Duke-like player was still unclaimed, they would (of course) be eligible to sign with anyone.... but back in the 80s & early 90s - those players had to go through that Supp Draft before signing with anyone.... they couldn't just pick their team like they do today.




And one last, final point - since this started out with the comparison on Reid Duke and Alex Daigle, and being the "first player" with their respective teams. Because college free agents wouldn't have been a thing, I don't imagine the Senators signed anyone before their first draft. Their first draft pick would not have been their first player though.... the day before the entry draft was the Supplimental Draft, where they took Steve Flomenholt. Tampa got Corey Cross with the first pick, so the day wasn't a complete waste of time.

The day before the Supplimental Draft was the Expansion draft, so before making any picks of junior players... Ottawa did have a roster of players they'd taken from other teams. Their first pick (and who was likely their actual first player) was Peter Sidorkiewicz.

Of course it should also be pointed out that Daigle wasn't the Senators first draft pick. He was the #1 overall pick after their first season. They actually took Alexi Yashin with the #2 overall pick in 1992, before getting Daigle with the #1 pick in the 1993 :)