What We Will And Won’t Miss With A Decentralized NHL Draft

The NHL’s 2024 draft was a smash success, partly because it took place at the state-of-the-art, technological wonder that is the Sphere in Las Vegas.

However, the league decided to decentralize the draft so NHL GMs and team management stay in their cities during the event. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman feels the league is making the right choice for the draft process and deferring to the teams that voted to change the nature of the draft.

“The Sphere was an incredible experience, but our clubs want to be decentralized,” Bettman told media on Oct. 9 in Vegas. “Now, it’s still going to be a big event. The prospects are still going to be with us. The difference is going to be the teams, instead of being on the floor and announcing their own picks, they’ll be sending their picks in, probably electronically. I’ll announce it, I’ll greet the player, and then they’ll go get on a plane and go visit whoever drafted them.”

Related: 2025 NHL Draft Rankings: Will There Be A Race For First Overall?

Certainly, there are elements of the centralized draft that we won’t miss. For instance, the formulaic approach we see from teams when brass comes to the microphone – the “we want to thank everyone back at (home city) watching along at (home city venue)” routine – is rote when everyone’s waiting to hear the pick. But as Bettman said, there are elements we won’t miss because they aren’t going anywhere – specifically still having a location that hosts the draft, hearing from the players when they get picked, seeing trades go down and more.

“With the number of people that are now involved, the use of computers and analytics and everything else, I think most of our clubs overwhelmingly, we’re more comfortable staying home to do this,” Bettman continued. “I like the format we had. I think what we did in the Sphere was incredible, particularly I think for the first live televised event from the Sphere. But, ultimately, on certain things, I think it’s important to defer to the clubs.”

That said, although the new process has yet to be officially nailed down, there are elements of the centralized draft we will miss – including the on-the-floor drama of GMs and other executives speaking to one another. Instead of seeing two GMs walk off discussing a trade, they’ll be on the phones in separate cities. While there may still be interviews during the draft with GMs, it won’t be as natural as being in person. But there will still be a host city where players and their families can show up for festivities, and The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta suggested the next draft will be held in Los Angeles. Bettman was coy when confronted about the possibility this week.

“I don’t think we’ve made any formal announcements yet and as I said, I’m not breaking news tonight,” Bettman said of the L.A. rumors. “But that was a very good try.”

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