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NHL bringing back draft pick compensation this offseason for hiring away coaches, GMs

Colorado Avalanche v Detroit Red Wings

DETROIT - OCTOBER 12: Executive Vice President and General Manager, Ken Holland of the Detroit Red Wings address the media during a press conference to announce the retirement from hockey of Kirk Maltby #18 before a NHL game against the Colorado Avalanche at Joe Louis Arena on Friday October 12, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

NHLI via Getty Images

No more free cupboard raiding for NHL teams.

Per Pierre LeBrun, this summer will mark the league’s implementation (or, re-implementation) of draft pick compensation for teams that lose coaches, general managers and presidents while still under contract.

More, from TSN’s Insider Trading segment:

If it’s an offseason hire for either a president of hockey operations, a GM or a head coach, it’s a third-round pick that goes the other way for a guy that’s under contract. If it’s an in-season hire, it’s a second-round pick.

For a coach, the season ends as soon as his season ends but for a GM or president of hockey operations, the draft is the cutoff for in-season/offseason.

The Board of Governors voted on and approved compensation last summer but, as LeBrun notes, the language wasn’t quite “set up” as to how things would work. This will mark the first time since 2006 compensation will be used; back then, it was the Senators receiving a conditional draft pick from Boston after the Bruins hired away their assistant GM, Peter Chiarelli.

The re-implementation will likely please Detroit GM Ken Holland. After losing a pair of executives in Jim Nill (to Dallas) and Steve Yzerman (to Tampa Bay) and a series of coaches (Todd McLellan to San Jose, Paul MacLean to Ottawa, Bill Peters to Carolina) Holland wouldn’t allow AHL Grand Rapids head coach Jeff Blashill to interview for other coaching gigs last year, saying he didn’t “want to be a development team for other people.”