
Bill Daly indicates long-term assistance with decentralized NHL Draft format
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has said the decentralized draft format, implemented in 2024, remains popular among franchises, perhaps indicating a change to the way the league approaches one of its premium events forever.
While fans and the media have long been linked with the NHL Draft as a consolidated, electrically charged arena, that convention may now be an artifact of the league's history.
Franchises urge convenience and concentration as decentralized
NHL
Draft gathers steam
During an interview on The FAN Morning Show with Daniele Franceschi and Zack Bodenstein, Bill Daly provided frank observations regarding how NHL clubs are assessing the latest change to draft arrangements. This year, for the first time, general managers, scouts, and operations personnel stayed behind in their home cities while the broadcast was based in Los Angeles.
The league, which was the only one of its kind to require in-person drafts, now seems set to join the NFL and NBA's time-honored virtual tradition.
"What I will say is we continue to see support for a decentralized draft (from the clubs)," Daly said, reiterating that the switch has been club-led, not imposed by the league. "A lot of the issues seem to be having efficient access to your hockey operations personnel in kind of a quiet, businesslike setting.
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I think our clubs take the draft very, very seriously, as they should. It goes to kind of define the future of the franchise, making good decisions and the right decisions from a team standpoint in a draft context.
Given how crowded the end of our season has become with all the obligations clubs, managers, and players have toward the very end of the season leading up to free agency, I think the efficiency of not having to travel to a central location is something that's very appealing to a number of our clubs.
We'll gather that information (from polling), we'll process it and we'll make decisions with respect to what next year looks like. I guess what I'll leave you with is a lot of the reasons for going to the decentralized draft have been reasserted in the context of polling (from) what we saw two weeks ago."
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly on USHL Development
The deputy commissioner further stated that a poll conducted internally by the league revealed "overwhelming" franchise support for maintaining the decentralized approach in 2025 and possibly beyond.
That straw poll, as Bill Daly disclosed, surprised even league executives with how decisively it favored the new method. "When we initially made the decision and announcement we were going to a decentralized draft, a lot of people felt that was the league's initiative.
Quite frankly, to the contrary, it was at the clubs' initiative," he said. "We heard from a number of clubs and we took a vote, a straw poll on the issue, and I'll tell you the commissioner and I were actually very surprised at the results of that straw poll.
It was overwhelmingly in favour of a decentralized draft."
Also read:
Why NHL Stars are choosing Bill Zito's Florida Panthers over bigger paychecks elsewhere
Although the NHL's ruling is not yet official, the handwriting is on the wall: the era of the crowded draft floor with team tables, live trades, and handshake agreements may be coming to an end. Instead, a more concentrated, streamlined model has appeared—one that accommodates the changing realities of the league schedule and the business of hockey.
For real-time updates, scores, and highlights, follow our live coverage of the
India vs England Test match
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