[Burt the Butcher]

I mean if you sign an RFA, while not declaring years, you have to have salary cap space for the player - you trade, them, then makes sense to assign years.

Rookie picks are a whole other animal...they are just floating out there in limbo, not on active roster or TS/PS yet, and we do not need to clear space either way, so really makes no sense to have to declare years of placement just because they are traded before declarations.
Now the argument can be made for this AFTER the draft is over...

If someone disagrees, we can definitely vote on this for next year, but for now, no declartion needs to be made by Chixeau.
The Great and Wonderful OZ Has Spoken