Player Draft

Sportslaw Jargon: Player Draft

All of the major professional sports employ the use of a draft to select eligible rookie (or in some cases veteran) players for their teams. The basic arrangement in professional sports gives teams with poorer season records the chance to bid first for top new players so they can improve their competitive edge by the addition of better players.

The idea behing the player draft is competitive parity. Before the draft existed, players were often chosen based on territorial rights. If a player lived within a certain radius of the team's locale, that would give the team rights to that player. However, system resulted in a skewed quality of personnel. One of the reasons the Montreal Canadiens achieved such success is that they had the rights to every young player in Quebec. The New York Rangers, on the other hand, had the rights to players in the New York area. Suffice it to say that the choices in Quebec were of higher quality than those in New York.

Draft rights are negotiable and may be assigned for established players. So in a sense, the 'draft choice' is either the player selected or the position in the bidding order.

Player drafts began in professional sports at various times. The NFL began its draft in 1935. Baseball's started in 1965.

Source:

"Modern Dictionary for the legal profession" second edition by Beyer and Redden (William S. Hein & Co., Buffalo 1996)