Friedman Report | NHL teams vote to decentralize the draft

Folks, including us here at IC, enjoy heading to an NHL city at the end of every June as the hockey community gathers for the two-day NHL draft. Of course we haven’t been in a few years, instead hosting the Illegal Curve Draft Show on our YouTube channel covering the entirety of the first round and then having comprehensive Jets coverage of day two on this site.

However it appears some of that might be changing according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman who indicated NHL teams vote to decentralize the draft.

What does that mean?

According to Friedman’s in his 32 Thoughts article:

“This is still developing, but, according to several sources, the vast majority of NHL teams voted to decentralize the draft.

Ballots were due Tuesday, and there clearly is desire to try a new format. Discussions on how to move forward will be at the GM meetings in November and Board of Governors in December.”

Full article here.

While I can understand the position taken by NHL teams from a cost and logistics perspective it does seem like a shame for these kids not to have the opportunity to meet their new organizations.

From J.D. Burke of Elite Prospects we get this:

The proposal was that the NHL would still host a draft that prospects could attend in person, with a podium and all, but that the teams themselves would stay in their respective home locations and make their picks from there.

Full article here.

However from a media perspective it is an interesting dilemma. Do you stay in the NHL city of the team you cover to have access to scouts and management after the day of drafting ends or do you go to the host city and cover the players picked by the NHL team you cover.

It’s also a shame as it was speculated that once the downtown hotel was completed near Canada Life the city of Winnipeg would be in line to host a Draft. And it would be a positive to show off the city in late June rather than the winter assessment most folks think takes place in Manitoba for 12 months a year.

I’ve always enjoyed the NHL Draft as one of the best two-days on the NHL calendar. What say you?