"The Ottawa Senators announced Wednesday that the club has signed defenceman Jared Cowen to an entry-level contract.

Cowen, 19, was the Senators' first-round pick (ninth overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

He is in his third full season with the Western Hockey League's Spokane Chiefs and has recorded 17 goals, 43 assists and 153 penalty minutes in 161 career games.

The 6-5, 215-pound defenceman earned a silver medal with Team Canada at the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championship recording one assist and two penalty minutes in six games."



"An ELC contract covers a set number of years depending on the age when it is signed.

The Contract takes effect immediately. But for the purposes of calculating the life of the contract, the contract is not "considered" to be effective until a player under age 20 plays in 10 or more NHL games. This is not actually how it is worded in the CBA, but for the purposes of explaining it here, this will suffice.

As a result, just because Cowen signed this year does not mean it will expend a year of his ELC on account of the 09-10 season. If Cowen played in ten games this year, the clock would begin to run.

Given that ten games is the trigger which starts the clock "running", it is entirely possible that the three year period which is covered by the contract will not actually begin to run until the 2011-2012 season (should he fail to make the club and play 10 games next year)."