Steve Mayer: “2025 NHL Draft Will Be Unique With A Surprise or 30”

The 2025 NHL Draft Lottery was held on Monday night. The New York Islanders won the lottery and will pick first overall in Los Angeles on June 27, 2025.

In the past, the NHL Draft was centralized, with all the teams, from management to the rest of the staff, gathering in the draft city for the two-day event. However, in 2025, for the first time in the NHL Draft’s history, it will be decentralized, which means all the teams and their management staff will be at their home rinks instead of in Los Angeles or wherever the draft is being held.

Steve Mayer, President, NHL Content & Events, spoke with Full Press Hockey about the uniqueness of the 2025 NHL Draft and what the league has planned for it this year. 

Here is a segment of the 20-minute interview that Mayer did. In it, he talked about the 2025 NHL Draft and whether we could see a centralized draft come back in the years to come. 

Jim Biringer: “But speaking of something that is on the table this year. The NHL Draft is heading to Los Angeles. How are you going to make it different? Because it is going to be decentralized this year. It’s not a centralized draft like it has been in previous years. But how are you going to make it different from the NBA draft or the NFL draft that we’re seeing now? Because they’re they do similar setups with a decentralized draft?”

Steve Mayer: “Listen, that’s a great question, and it’s something that we immediately considered. There are others. I mean, one of the things that, personally, I loved about our draft was how different and how unique it was as compared to those other leagues. So the challenge is, how do we make it different?

I think what you’re going to see is everything from who makes the picks to the experience that we give the folks or the kids that are being drafted. I think there’s something that we’re going to do that’s quite unique, very different, that also takes advantage of technology and gives them that interaction that, let’s face it, is not there as it was in the past.

Obviously, one of the unique pieces that we used to have were the 32 tables on the floor, where the team and all the members of the team came up to make the pick, and then the player getting to greet his new team. We’re going to try to do the best we can to recreate that moment virtually.

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And so I think that’s one of the exciting pieces of what we might do with this upcoming draft to make it feel a little different, but all the draft prospects have been invited to Los Angeles. They’ll are all going to be there and then, uniquely, because we’re in Los Angeles, I think we might have a surprise or 30 on who’s going to be making the picks throughout the night.

I think that was a challenge in terms of creatively considering what we could do differently and what we’ll do differently, and we think we’ve come up with some really good ideas, and the night’s gonna move swiftly and quickly, but it’s gonna be interesting. And we hope the fans do enjoy the draft, because we did get great feedback, especially coming off of last year in Las Vegas.”

JB: “Since there’s been a lot of talk throughout the year, especially through the GM meetings and everything, is there, like a contingency plan or a plan already in place, potentially for next year, if you guys go back to a centralized draft?”

SM: “There’s been no discussion about that. Right now, we are looking at this year and we’ll see what happens in the future, but there’s been zero discussion about going back, and so we’re just focused on what’s about to take place in Los Angeles.”

The 2025 NHL Draft will be unique and different from last year at the Sphere in Vegas. We saw this draft type during 2021 and COVID, but that was all virtual. There is an element of being in person for this year’s draft, despite the management staff being at their home rinks.

So, with the way Steve Mayer works, you have to think the 2025 NHL Draft with special and still be a sight to see as it is every year.