The days of catching glimpses of NHL general managers simultaneously working two phones talking trades just 10 feet away from their counterparts on the Draft floor will soon be a thing of the past.
The NHL’s 32 clubs voted overwhelmingly to decentralize the draft experience, according to a memo circulated to teams on Wednesday, with more than four in five teams choosing to move to a format where front-office executives will remain in their home city to perform and execute their draft functions.
How quickly will the NHL transition to the new format? The league left open the possibility that the changes will be implemented as soon as June’s 2024 NHL Draft.
“We are still in the planning/negotiation stages for the 2024 NHL Draft and will determine shortly which format we will use for the 2024 Draft,” the memo read.
Having each franchise conduct business from their own war rooms, though common now in the NFL, NBA and MLB, is a big break from NHL tradition. Every franchise would descend on a host city, which from 1963 through 1984 was exclusively Montreal, most often at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Since at least 1980, the NHL has conducted just about every draft from a large arena or convention center – with the exception being the 2005 (Sidney Crosby) lockout year at the Westin Ottawa hotel and the 2020 and 2021 Drafts during the pandemic, which were conducted virtually.
Those COVID-era drafts proved that the NHL could pull it off technologically and virtually might be the best business practice for teams. Some GMs loathe the relative invasion of privacy, being forced to make all-important franchise decisions in an arena filled with fans while sitting just steps away from competitors, while others voted based on economics and time constraints.
Free agency typically opens in the days following the draft, leaving front offices to scurry back to the hometown – where they will then soon-after conduct development camps for their top prospects. That created both a logistical headache and significant expense to send everyone from home city for meetings to the draft host city and then back to their home facility.
The NHL has not yet nailed down a host site for the 2024 Draft, prompting the league to take the temperature of clubs in that formal poll last week. The draft itself is still expected to include a party-like atmosphere for top prospects and a small smattering of club representatives in a designated host city. However, decentralizing the draft will allow the NHL to seek out newer and cooler venues to host the celebration.
Discussion on the draft format and requirements will continue at the upcoming GM and Board of Governors meetings, in Toronto on Nov. 14 and in Seattle on Dec. 4-6.
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