basketball or football. Teams have a few years to sign their draft picks to entry level contracts. Only a handful of players play in the NHL the first season after they are drafted. Canadian junior players can’t play in the AHL for their NHL team’s farm team until they’re aged out of juniors a couple years later. I’m not sure if Americans can or not but often they’ll stay playing college hockey for a couple years anyway.

Europeans are often trickier to get over (they can usually make more money playing pro in Russia or Sweden, closer to home with a familiar language and culture, than in the AHL riding buses) but teams want their draft picks signed to their entry level deal and on the farm team to see how they transition to North American style of play.

Teams don’t have to even sign their draft picks. If players don’t sign they eventually become free agents, it takes a number of years and it may depend on where they play. Sometimes mid or low round draft picks from NCAA will end up developing well and end up being sought after, staying college long enough to become free agents so they can leverage that into something in their contracts or other concessions from NHL teams who want them sign or risk losing them. Sometimes they can force a trade to a preferred destination by threatening to just not sign their deal.