If you read the story in the Maine Sunday Telegram about Gustav Nyquist, one thing to elaborate is that his rights are held by the Detroit Red Wings, who drafted him in June. According to the NHL Players Association, the Red Wings will retain his rights through his four years of college - if Nyquist decides to stay at the University of Maine for those four years. If he decides to leave Maine early, he is property of the Red Wings until June 1 of that year. If he stays at Maine for four years and/or graduates, he's property of the Red Wings until Aug. 15 of that year.

Until 2005, a team could draft European players and retain their rights until they were 31. An example of that was Teemu Selanne, who joined the Winnipeg Jets in 1992, four years after he was drafted, This isn't the case now with the new collective bargaining agreement, which restricts the amount of time teams can retain the rights to players.

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It's interesting to note that the Red Wings' trademark is drafting European players and developing them either in their system or overseas. Jim Nill, the assistant general manager of the Red Wings, explained that to keep the team competitive the organization turned to drafting and developing European prospects in the late 1990s. This was in order to fill a void that was created when the team traded away high draft picks for players such as Brendan Shanahan (in 1996, for Keith Primeau, Paul Coffey and a first-round pick), Larry Murphy (in 1995, for Dimitri Mironov and a second-round pick) and Chris Chelios (in 1999, for Anders Eriksson and two first-round draft picks).

Since 1995 the Red Wings have won five Stanley Cups, but couldn't boast first-round draft picks like Joe Thornton, Roberto Luongo and Vincent Lecavalier, who were taken in the 1997 and 1998 drafts. Ideally, the Red Wings wanted to draft a 6-foot-1 forward with strength and speed, who could step into the lineup and make an impact right away. But not everyone could take a player like Thornton in the first round, so Nill explained that the Red Wings turned to drafting and developing European draftees such as Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom - who are still going strong in the Red Wings' current lineup.

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The national polls will return next Monday. Until then, stay warm.

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