On Jan. 1, 2015, the NHL implemented a new policy to compensate teams that lost an executive or coach due to them being hired by another team while still under contract with their previous club. This new rule only lasted one calendar year before commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the rule would no longer be in effect on Jan. 1, 2016. With this rule lasting an entire year, eight draft picks were awarded to teams during this period. Two second-round picks were awarded, and so were six third-round picks. The final draft pick of those compensatory selections was made in the 2017 Draft, meaning that it has been eight years since a player was selected with a compensatory pick. Enough time has passed to see what these players turned out to be at the NHL level.
Jack Studnicka, Boston Bruins, 2017 2nd Round Pick
Jack Studnicka was drafted 53rd overall by the Boston Bruins with a pick given to them by the Edmonton Oilers as compensation for the Oilers hiring Peter Chiarelli as their new general manager on April 24, 2015. Studnicka was drafted after recording 52 points in 64 games with the Oshawa Generals in the 2016-17 season. Once he began playing pro hockey at the age of 20, Studnicka bounced around between the American Hockey League (AHL) and the NHL. Spending time in Providence and Boston, he was never able to establish himself properly with the Bruins and never played a full season in just the NHL.
After playing just one game at the start of the 2022-23 season, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks for goaltender Michael DiPietro and defensive prospect Jonathan Myrenberg. In his time with the Canucks, he played 47 games with the club, totalling eight points. The following season, he was only able to play 14 total games in the organization between Vancouver and Abbotsford. He was eventually traded to the San Jose Sharks during the season for defenseman Nick Cicek and San Jose’s 2024 sixth-round selection. He only played 17 games with the Sharks and recorded zero points. In 2024-25, he played his entire season in the AHL with the Ontario Reign and had 45 points in 72 games. Heading into this season, he has signed an NHL deal with the Florida Panthers and will most likely spend the majority of his season in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers.
Zane Zablocki, Detroit Red Wings, 2017 3rd Round Pick
The Detroit Red Wings were given a compensatory pick from the Toronto Maple Leafs after the team hired Mike Babcock on May 20, 2015. The pick turned out to be a 2017 third-round pick, and the Red Wings used it to select Lane Zablocki of the Western Hockey League’s Red Deer Rebels. During his draft season, Zablocki split time between the Regina Pats and Red Deer Rebels, recording a total of 54 points in 64 games between the two teams.
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After he was drafted by Detroit, things began to go downhill for Zablocki. In his next season, he split time between three WHL teams and only had 31 points in 65 total games. His next season, he split time between the WHL with the Kelowna Rockets and the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) with the Vernon Vipers. He was not offered an entry-level contract by the Red Wings, and his rights for the team expired. In 2019-20, he played for the University of Calgary Dinos of Canada’s U-Sports league and played his final hockey game of his career before the pandemic shutdown.
William Lockwood, Vancouver Canucks, 2016 3rd Round Pick
Former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who won a Stanley Cup with the organization back in 2009, was hired by the Buffalo Sabres on May 28, 2015. Due to this hiring, the Penguins were given a free third-round pick that they didn’t use. Instead, they traded it away, along with Brandon Sutter, to the Canucks for Nick Bonino, Adam Clendening, and an Anaheim Ducks second-round pick in 2016. Funny enough, the pick that Vancouver got was originally their own, so they were able to retain their own third-round pick. Vancouver used it to take William Lockwood from the United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP).
Lockwood had a productive draft season, where he recorded 33 points in 55 games for the program and got to play with players like Clayton Keller, Adam Fox, and Trent Frederic. After being drafted by Vancouver, he spent four seasons at the University of Michigan and captained the club in 2019-20. During the pandemic season of 2020-21, he finally played pro hockey and even made his NHL debut. He played 24 games with the Utica Comets, who were the Canucks AHL team at the time, recording 11 points in 24 games and played two NHL games with the Canucks.
The next season, Lockwood spent the majority of his time bouncing between the AHL and NHL. He played 46 games with the Abbotsford Canucks (who this season became Vancouver’s AHL team), and scored nine goals and 16 assists in that time. He was also able to play 13 games with Vancouver that season. The following season in 2022-23, he once again spent time in both the NHL and AHL, but he was traded near the trade deadline along with a seventh-round pick to the New York Rangers for Vitali Kravtsov. He joined New York’s AHL team, the Hartford Wolf Pack, where he played in 17 games and recorded 12 points. After his time in Hartford, he signed with the Florida Panthers and primarily played in the AHL with a few stints up with the NHL club. This past season in 2024-25, he spent the entire season in Charlotte with the Checkers and recorded 21 points in 52 games. He currently has no NHL contract for the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Reilly Walsh, New Jersey Devils, 2017 3rd Round Pick
The same day that Bylsma was hired in Buffalo, Pete DeBoer was hired as the head coach of the Sharks after being fired by the New Jersey Devils. Due to the hiring, New Jersey was given a free third-round pick and selected Reilly Walsh from Proctor Academy and the Chicago Steel. In 30 games with Proctor, Walsh recorded 69 points as a defenseman and even spent some time with the Steel of the United States Hockey League (USHL), where he had 10 points in 24 games. After being drafted, Walsh spent three seasons at Harvard University, with his sophomore season being his best points-wise, with 31 points in 33 games.
In 2020-21, he began his pro hockey career in the AHL with the Binghamton Devils, recording 15 points in 33 games. The following season, he played 70 AHL games with the Devils’ new AHL team, the Comets and had 43 points. He was even able to get into his only career NHL game that season as well. The following three seasons of his career were spent in the AHL with three different organizations, and he was a big part of all three of those teams. He now begins a new chapter of his career in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) with Barys Astana.
James Greenway, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2016 3rd Round Pick
Pittsburgh was awarded another compensatory pick from the Devils after they hired Wilkes-Barre Scranton head coach John Hynes. Hynes’ hiring by the Devils cost them a draft pick, which the Penguins later traded to Toronto as part of the Phil Kessel deal. Toronto used this pick to select James Greenway from the USNTDP. Greenway recorded 38 points in 89 games with the NTDP in 2016 and seven points in seven games at the U18s that season as well. After being drafted, he played two seasons at the University of Wisconsin. During that time, he played in 46 games and had 10 points.
After his two seasons with the Badgers, Greenway decided to go back to the USHL in 2018-19 and played with the Dubuque Fighting Saints, where he recorded 33 points in 58 games as one of the oldest players in the league. After his season with Dubuque, he went back to the NCAA and played with the University of Maine for two seasons, recording 15 points in 48 games. His draft rights eventually expired with Toronto, and he signed in the AHL with the Providence Bruins during the 2021-22 season. He has spent his career splitting time between the AHL and ECHL until his final season of professional hockey in 2023-24.
Mike Robinson, San Jose Sharks, 2015 3rd Round Pick
After hiring Todd McLellan from the Sharks, the Edmonton Oilers needed to surrender a third-round pick to their Pacific Division rivals. That pick became goaltender Michael Robinson from Lawrence Academy prep school. Although drafted with a coveted pick, Robinson, like many others on this list, sadly wasn’t able to crack the NHL. He joined the NCAA two seasons after he was drafted and played at the University of New Hampshire from 2017-2022, where he had many ups and downs with the club. During his time in the NCAA, his NHL rights expired, and he began to split time between multiple leagues for the next few seasons. He spent time in the ECHL, AHL, South Pacific Hockey League (SPHL), and even the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) in England. Robinson spent all of 2024-25 in the SPHL with the Hunsville Havoc and currently has no contract for this season.
Jonah Gadjovich, Vancouver Canucks, 2017 2nd Round Pick
Finally, someone who is currently in the NHL. After beginning the 2015-16 season with a horrendous 0-7-0 start, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired Todd Richards and hired former Canucks coach John Tortorella, and the compensation turned out to be a 2017 second-round pick. The Canucks used that pick to take Jonah Gadjovich from the Owen Sound Attack. He was coming off of a season where he recorded 74 points in 60 games with Owen Sound, and an unfortunate injury limited him to only 42 games in 2017-18. After his final season in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), he played for the Comets in the AHL for the next three seasons, totalling 45 points in 100 games from 2018-2021. During the pandemic season of 2020-21, he was able to play his only game with the Canucks.
Gadjovich was placed on waivers at the start of the 2021 season and was claimed by the Sharks. Once there, he played in 43 games that season, only recording three points but accumulating 74 penalty minutes. The following season, he played in 35 games and recorded seven points and 57 penalty minutes. He had clearly established himself as a tough player who wasn’t afraid to drop the gloves.
So naturally, the Panthers came calling and initially offered him an AHL deal that became an NHL deal on Oct. 16, 2023. He played in 39 games in the 2023-24 season, recording four points and 104 penalty minutes. He was not able to play in any playoff games for Florida during their Cup Final run, so he did not get his name on the Stanley Cup or get a ring. But this past season, he re-signed with the Panthers on a two-year deal and was instrumental in their run to their second Stanley Cup. He played in 16 of Florida’s 23 playoff games, contributing to their bottom six. He lifted the Stanley Cup after Florida’s Game 6 win against Edmonton and recently had his day with the Cup.
Many feared that these compensatory picks could turn into the next Nikita Kucherov or Alex DeBrincat, but they did not. However, it is still good that the NHL got rid of this rule because teams shouldn’t be punished for hiring an executive or coach who is no longer with an organization on a day-to-day basis. The majority of these players didn’t pan out, but they will always be linked to this rule that only lasted one calendar year.
