The NHL learned a valuable lesson at the 2025 draft: If it ain\u2019t broken, don\u2019t fix it.<\/p>\n
Coming off the objectively coolest draft<\/a> in the league\u2019s storied history held at Sphere in Las Vegas in 2024, the league went to a remote format this year. It made for awkward, repetitive on-stage interviews and the first round lasted nearly five hours.<\/p>\n Both before and after the draft, the league made it clear that the format only changed because the team executives wanted it to \u2014 a 26-6 split when the 32 teams voted. <\/p>\n But regardless, it was on the league\u2019s shoulders to still make it interesting, which the overwhelming majority of fans don\u2019t think was the case.<\/p>\n Heck, even the people getting paid to watch it didn\u2019t want to be there. At the Utah Mammoth\u2019s draft event at a hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, I was the only one who stayed past pick 20 or so. Even the management and scouting staff had abandoned their table (though they may have migrated to another room).<\/p>\n The change was meant to accomplish a few things:<\/p>\n Limit travel costs.Provide a quieter, more intimate environment for teams to make decisions.Make the busiest week of the offseason less hectic for team executives.<\/p>\n Did the teams accomplish what they wanted to with the new format?<\/p>\n How did the teams like the new NHL Draft format?<\/p>\n Mammoth director of amateur scouting Ryan Jankowski gave his opinion in a press conference after the draft concluded.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good and bad,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the good of it is that you\u2019re in that room, you can talk freely with each other, you can hear each other, you can have everybody in that room, where you\u2019re limited to so many people on the draft floor. <\/p>\n \u201cThe bad part about it is that you\u2019re not with the rest of the league.\u201d<\/p>\n Jankowski missed the buzz that accompanies the draft when everyone\u2019s in a central location, noting that amateur scouts rarely get to go to NHL games so they don\u2019t often experience the excitement surrounding the teams they work for.<\/p>\n \u201cThere (were) benefits to being in that room, too,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can have some fun. You can have some laughs, joke around a little bit, so it brings up the camaraderie and actually makes the decision-making maybe a little bit easier because you can ask those questions, but you do miss the excitement of being at the draft.\u201d<\/p>\n Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman, who was reportedly among the voices pushing for the decentralized format in the first place, has not changed his stance.<\/p>\n \u201cI personally like it,\u201d he said in a press conference<\/a> after the first round of the draft. \u201cI just think it\u2019s easier. We\u2019re in a quieter room, it\u2019s a little bit more relaxed for us.\u201d<\/p>\n He did note, though, that he wasn\u2019t a fan of how long any of the league\u2019s remote drafts have dragged on, whether it be this one or the two held during the pandemic.<\/p>\n Before the draft, Los Angeles Kings president of hockey operations Luc Robitaille gave his opinion in an interview with NHL.com\u2019s Nick Cotsonika<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people like it, some people don\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cI put a lot of value on what scouts do in the season and the traveling and so forth, so the less distraction you have when you\u2019re in the room when it\u2019s time to make a decision that can impact a franchise for 10-plus years, I think it\u2019s very important. <\/p>\n \u201cIs the show itself, being on the floor and talking to everyone fun? Yes, but at the end of the day, that draft every year could make or break a franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington Capitals assistant GM Ross Mahoney said<\/a> the format didn\u2019t change his team\u2019s process.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sense of how we approach things is no different, but you don\u2019t have the same atmosphere of being on the draft floor with all the other teams, and the media and all the parents in the stands,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cBut as far as we approach it, it\u2019s the same.\u201d<\/p>\n