An entire year\u2019s worth of scouting, evaluating, rating and debating all comes down to two days in the summer at the annual NHL Draft. The months of time spent on the road, away from home, in hotels, in arenas, on planes, in rented cars, in foreign countries, all for these two days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time,\u201d Lachance said. \u201cYour work is done. You\u2019ve gone through all those meetings and put your list together. You\u2019ve already done all the work, the planes, trains and automobiles. It\u2019s the scout\u2019s Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2025, the draft was held remotely. So, Lachance and the entire Devils scouting and hockey operations staff were set up in the team\u2019s official locker room inside the Prudential Center.<\/p>\n
In years past, the Draft was held in one centralized location. Each NHL team had a table on the draft floor with a select number of staff seated at the table \u2013 for the Devils that included Lachance. The remaining staff typically were set up in a suit somewhere inside the arena.<\/p>\n
While the change had mixed feelings throughout the league, it did have some benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can speak freely, and you don\u2019t have to worry about someone seeing your list,\u201d Lachance said. \u201cYou can get up and go speak to analytics, you can go speak to one of your regional guys and try to pick their brain on the pick that\u2019s coming up four for five spots away.\u201d<\/p>\n