The CBA Is Screwing Jonathan Drouin More than Anyone Else in the NHL

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

Six goals. Forty points. Eighty-nine career regular-season games.

For many, this is the sum of Jonathan Drouin's brief NHL career. Have a glance at his underlying numbers, take a peek at his 5-on-5 time on ice with Steven Stamkos and roll your eyes at his six scoreless postseason games, and that's how almost everyone will judge the third pick in the 2013 draft as he embarks on a quest that will either reinvigorate or sabotage his career.

Numbers, however, are the last things Drouin, his agent Allan Walsh, his coach Jon Cooper and general manager Steve Yzerman care about.

The only thing that superfecta is thinking about as this saga plays out is Drouin's future and what's best for it. As much as we live in an era in which we strive to quantify the tiniest bit of statistical minutiae across hockey, this situation boils down to belief in Drouin's abilities, and Drouin is taking control of them, as they are his abilities, after all.

And no one—not the 20-year-old Drouin, not the agent, not the coach entering his third full season and not the general manager in the midst of his fifth year on the job—knows with 100 percent certainty how their choices will work out over the next 5-15 years.

Drouin believes, and his agent agrees, that he is qualified for a permanent job in the NHL. Cooper and Yzerman disagree and feel Drouin needs to become a more complete player in order to occupy a regular spot in the Lightning lineup, ideally somewhere on the top-two lines. Both sides can point to any group of Drouin's numbers to make a case for and against these ideas but at the end of the day, the Lightning are holding all the cards and the one they chose to use this season reads, "Go play in the AHL."

With virtually zero rights in the NHL landscape, as someone who didn't choose to play professional hockey for a team that has no room for him when the other 29 would almost certainly accommodate his presence, Drouin played the only card at his disposal, the one that reads, "Trade me."

In the voice of Sam Kinison in Back To School, "Is he right?"

I don't know. You don't know. All we can do is take our stands of, "Drouin needs to learn his place and go through the process!" or, "Drouin is being railroaded and this is his only course of action, so go for it!" Because people are simple-minded and can't possibly hold two conflicting ideas about one thing in their mind at the same time. That's window dressing, anyway. The opinions of the media and fans never matter and in this case, they somehow matter even less. This is about what's best for Drouin and what's best for the Lightning and how those two ideals no longer seem to coincide.

If you're of the mind that Drouin should do what he's told at all times and never question authority, think back to when you were young and stupid, like we all were. You wanted that job, that whatever, because you felt you were ready for it and deserved it. As the years progressed, you learned that petulance was wrong and grew thankful you had people to guide you through your misbegotten youth.

But then realize you were never anywhere near as talented or good at what you did in comparison to Drouin and you can't possibly understand what it's like to look at a lineup that has Ryan Callahan making $6 million a season and playing 17:30 per night while you're living in a hotel in Syracuse wondering why the Arby's on Erie Boulevard doesn't stay open past 10 PM.

At least, that's clearly the mindset of the Drouin/Walsh tandem. To a certain extent, they are exhibiting signs of distrust; Cooper and Yzerman want Drouin to go to the AHL, log a lot of minutes and learn how to play without the puck so he can become an even better NHL player, which theoretically should be the goal on both sides. But if you believe you are being squeezed out of a lineup that has no spot for you and relegation to the AHL is a scheme to pay you less this year and down the road, then what's left for Drouin and Walsh to do but force the issue?

There are two truths about the NHL: the earning power of athletes exists in a small window and as the years move forward, the league is becoming more and more a young man's game. Drouin turns 21 in March and is just about set to enter his prime. But more importantly, he's about to enter his second contract, one that will be based a lot on his production this season, a season that was practically lost before this went down.

If that production is happening on a fourth line or in Syracuse, those dollars won't be as significant as they could be if he were playing in almost any other NHL city since he was drafted.

If your reaction to reading that last paragraph is, "He should be more concerned about getting better and helping the team and not about his paycheck," e-mail me your boss' phone number and I will call to say you don't care about making as much money as you deserve and to cut your salary in order to help the team that is your company. If that cracks your fragile perception of the business that is pro sports, might I suggest a teddy bear or a video of babies laughing at dogs to soften the blow.

The problem is the NHL's CBA, one that was ratified six months before Drouin entered into indentured servitude. The system is gamed against the players. For just about every draftee, they are under control of the team that drafted them until they are 25 unless another club bellies up to the table and extends an offer sheet when the player is a restricted free agent. An offer sheet can be extended when… hahaha offer sheets? What are you? A child?

There have been a total of eight offer sheets signed by players since the second lockout and seven were matched by the player's original team. Because of the CBA and salary cap and old boys network, mountains must be moved for there to be even the threat of an offer sheet, like the ones that got Brandon Saad and Dougie Hamilton new homes before they signed their second NHL contracts.

Imagine being held hostage and countries all around the globe want to rescue you but those countries golf with the people holding you hostage. You have to be of the highest priority to have your ransom purchased, and even then the escape from your captors rarely works. Everyone knows you're a commodity and you have very little say in what you do and where you go during the first half of your career.

There's also the matter of Drouin needing to be on the active roster for two more games this season so it counts as an accrued season. If he is left in the minors, it pushes back his scheduled date to become an unrestricted free agent from July 2021 to July 2022. Drouin won't be offer-sheet eligible until he's accrued four years of NHL service, and he's desperately trying to get through Year 2 now.

Hockey owns your heart but the team that drafted you owns your soul until you can legally drink and rent a car.

So what's Drouin to do? Swallow what Yzerman and Cooper are shoving down his throat for the next half-decade until they no longer have any use for him? Or does he force a trade to a team that will allow him to play the game he loves while maximizing his fleeting earning power?

What's your fear as a fan? What's your complaint? That some dumb, entitled baby is going to get what he wants so good luck to the team that gets him?

Well, I'll be sure to jump into my time machine and wish the Philadelphia Flyers good luck with Eric Lindros and New York Giants the best of wishes with Eli Manning. Both forced their ways off teams on the day they were drafted and both went on to (likely) Hall of Fame Careers.

Talent trumps everything and everyone agrees, even the foursome starring in this bad episode of a daytime soap opera. And Drouin is loaded with it. If Tyler Seguin could find a new home and become a Hart Trophy candidate after doing crazy things like drinking beer and talking to girls, imagine what Drouin could do after not wanting to live and play in Syracuse.

If Drouin gets shipped to a new home because of this petulance/brave stance, it's a landmark move and yet it isn't.

It can't be overstated what a rare situation this is—an ultra-talented No. 3 pick goes to a team that becomes a perennial Stanley Cup contender almost overnight, leaving said No. 3 pick unable to crack a forward group so talented that it makes you wonder why the team selected him in the first place.

The only thing slightly comparable in recent years is the New Jersey Devils taking Adam Larsson with the No. 4 pick in 2011, playing him non-stop out of the gate, then relegating him to a healthy scratch as the Devils suddenly reached the Cup finals in 2012. He was an AHL player the following year before returning to the club full time last season.

Drouin has decided he doesn't want to wait for a third full year. He wants out now. He believes he's ready.

Athletes don't rise to Drouin's level without copious amounts of self-confidence. He is at a career crossroads right now and that trait more than any skill he possesses on the ice will decide the rest of his career, whether that conforms to your idea of how pro sports are supposed to be or not.