The NHL tried something new with how the 2025 draft worked. It got awkward

New York Times

17 hours ago

For decades, the NHL had a unique approach to its annual draft. While other leagues used a decentralized approach, with teams drafting from various war rooms around North America, the NHL brought everyone to one host city for a days-long celebration of the future. Aside from 2020 and 2021, when COVID forced a fully virtual draft, it's been an everyone-invited event for decades. It was a rare case of hockey doing something cool and unique.
Advertisement
And so, of course, this year, they said: Nah, let's just do it the way everyone else does.
Back in 2023, we reported on the reasons behind the potential change, but we'll summarize here: It was expensive for teams to fly their entire front office and scouting staffs in to the draft, the travel was a pain, the draft floor was too crowded for making trades, and there wasn't enough time to get everyone back home before free agency opened.
You could argue all of those complaints are reasonable. You could also point out that absolutely none of them have anything to do with the fans, or the viewers at home. The NHL is ostensibly an entertainment product, but they tend to forget that minor detail roughly (checks notes) all the time. Is saving a few bucks worth it if one of your biggest nights looks worse as a result?
Maybe not, but that's only if it looks worse. Maybe it could be fine. Heck, maybe it would even be an improvement — it's not like the old way got rave reviews each and every year. Then again, last year's Sphere experience would be a tough act to follow.
I didn't love the change when it was first announced, but I was intrigued, especially after reading Julian's piece about how it would all work. I wanted to give it a fair shot. Here are my thoughts on the good, the bad and everything in between from Friday night's opening round.
Gary Bettman still getting booed. Look, go ahead and change the things you think you need to change, but some traditions are sacred.
It wasn't much. Call it a smattering. But it was enough to remind you that yes, there were some real fans in attendance, not just the draft prospects themselves. (I think. Wait, did any of the prospects boo Bettman? Because if so, I'm skipping the waiting period and putting them all in the Hall of Fame.)
Advertisement
Headline fatigue. The first round of the draft isn't always the biggest story of a busy week, but you'd at least like it to be the big news of the day. But by the time things got started on Friday night, hockey fans were already chewing on five major stories that had broken in the hours before.
We had a major blockbuster involving two of Friday's first-rounders and Noah Dobson. We had a weird salary dump. We had two of the three biggest names on the UFA board sign extensions, with Sam Bennett and John Tavares both taking discounts to stay put. Oh, and we also got word of a brand-new CBA. By the time the first boos hit Bettman's ears, some fans were probably all hockey newsed out. That would have been bad news, since they still had roughly fourteen hours of the first round to get through.
Let's just say it – Bettman was working the room up there. They took away his podium (except for trades, which we'll get to in a minute), meaning he had to free-roam around the stage. That's harder than you think, and he did… OK? I think he did OK. In fact, I think the boss was kind of feeling it out there.
The old, awkward Bettman did show up occasionally, including when he had to go back to the same tired 'I love the passion' routine when he got booed. But overall, he's clearly put in some work on the whole public speaking thing. It may have taken him 30 years, and we're basically comparing him to Roger Goodell and Adam Silver, which isn't exactly the world's highest bar. But sure, he cleared it. He even got a genuine chuckle from the 'I'm not that short' line about the mic before one of the Blackhawks' picks.
I'm saying nice things about Gary Bettman and I hate it, let's move on.
Matthew Schaefer's emotional reaction to going first overall.
There wasn't much suspense on the top pick this year, but the moment was still memorable based on Schaefer's tears, as the top pick and his family shared the moment while honoring his mom, Jennifer, who passed away in 2024. It was a touching moment, and the broadcast handled it in a way that gave it room without feeling overboard.
Matthew Schaefer goes first overall to the New York Islanders 🧡💙
What a moment for the @ErieOtters defenceman at the #NHLDraft 🥲 pic.twitter.com/QkNfeBGruh
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 27, 2025
Those virtual meetings between the prospects and the front offices that just drafted them, in the area dubbed 'The Draft House.'
Yeah, this didn't work. At all. Once Schaefer's emotional moment was done, the rest of the conversations ranged from mildly awkward to borderline painful. Put it this way: Under the old system, the networks never bothered to mic everyone up for those handshake moments that used to happen on the big stage. Now we know why — they're not very interesting. If we keep this format, we can go ahead and scrap that bit.
pic.twitter.com/UPG9wxJjx6
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 27, 2025
I don't think anyone heard about this whole idea and thought, 'That will probably be fascinating, the only people who are more charismatic than hockey players are hockey executives.' But it's worth trying new things. Sometimes they work. Sometimes your audio is all screwed up and echoing, there are weird pauses everywhere, and nothing interesting gets said.
Advertisement
I realize a lot of planning goes into this sort of thing, but someone should have called an audible after James Hagens had to be told to wave at the Bruins' front office like he was a toddler seeing the pandas at the zoo.
The reaction to The Draft House.
Man, did you all ever hate this part. (See the replies here for a sampling.) Yes, that counts as a good thing. Hockey fans are never happier than when we're all dunking on something at the same time. It's been a while. I missed you guys. Bring it in. (Realizes you can't hear me because the Zoom is laggy.) OK, never mind, moving on…
The celebrity pick announcers.
The concept makes sense. We're used to the actual pick announcements being mumbled into a microphone, so contracting out some charisma wasn't the worst idea. Besides, it means a break from Bettman, and maybe even a reminder that there are some cool people out there who like hockey.
Did it work? Sometimes. It was an eclectic mix, let's just say. We had a pro wrestler, a yelling golfer, Charles Barkley Zoom-ing in from the smallest room in his unfinished basement, Jerry Bruckheimer being introduced in a way that was clearly designed to trick you into thinking it might be Brad Pitt, the guys who sang that song you liked in 1998, a football player, actors from that movie you liked in 1992, the 'Entourage' guy, the 'cut it out' guy from that sitcom you liked in 1987, and Barry Trotz doing the first Predators picks on his own because there are no famous people in Nashville.
But we also had Meredith Gaudreau and Happy Gilmore, so… yeah, ups and downs.
'Number 18, is that Gilmore again?'
Happy Gilmore AKA Adam Sandler made the Bruins' pick in the #NHLDraft 😂
🎥 @NHL | @NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/ZS3ayuA0nm
— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) June 28, 2025
The lack of early-round trades.
You know what, this one's on me. Every year, there are rumors about top picks being moved, every year I get hyped about it, and every year nothing actually happens. At some point, you either figure it out or you don't, and I've apparently chosen the second option.
That said… I mean, this was the year it had to happen, right? You had the Islanders holding not just the first pick, but also a pair of mid-round picks from the Dobson trade, in a draft where a local kid was projected to go early. It was probably too much to hope they might trade down out of the first spot to take James Hagens, but trading back up into the top 10 felt like a gimme. Once Hagens slipped out of the top five, everyone was thinking it. But it didn't happen, with Hagens ultimately going seventh to the Bruins.
Advertisement
Did the Islanders even try? Almost certainly, but it takes two to tango, and as you may have heard, these trades are really hard. Once the picks start flying, expecting any team to embrace the risk involved in trading out of the top 10 is probably wishful thinking.
We should have seen it coming. But remember, we were told that this was part of the reason for the new format — that having some privacy to work on moves away from the prying ears of rival teams might juice the action. It decidedly did not. There were no picks involving players during the draft, and the first trade involving a pick didn't come until the Flyers moved up to 12 in a deal with the Penguins. Which we found out about, thanks to…
The Big Red Button.
I'm not sure what ESPN viewers saw, but Sportsnet introduced its broadcast with a quick tour. It included a podium on the stage that we were told would be for announcing trades. We also got a glimpse of a large red button, which was not mentioned or explained.
As a viewer, you hoped it might be for a trap door that could swing into action if anyone tried to ramble on instead of just making a pick. But no, it turned out to be the 'we have a trade to announce' button, which we finally learned when Kris Letang's kid got to hit it roughly 90 minutes in. We got a horn noise and a quick scoreboard animation, in case you were wondering. It's the sort of thing I usually roll my eyes at, but then my kids tell me that I hate whimsy and fun. Which I absolutely do, for the record. But let's call the Big Red Button a winking nod toward what's often the most exciting part of any draft. We just wish they'd used it more.
The drafted players having to high-five their way down a reception line of fellow prospects.
As several of you pointed out, they put all the prospects expected to go at the top of the draft near the back of the seating area, meaning they had to work their way through congratulatory hugs and high-fives from their colleagues. A lot of you didn't like that. I didn't mind. To settle the dispute, we'll refer to the self-appointed expert on handshake etiquette and wait for Paul Maurice to weigh in.
Advertisement
No GMs wasting our time by thanking the host city, congratulating the Stanley Cup winner, and saying hi to their fans back home.
We'd seen the league clamp down on the exceedingly annoying preamble in recent years, but this year it was mostly absent other than a brief wobble when Mikael Samuelsson showed up for some reason and tried to slip in a Panthers shoutout.
Remember that when somebody tries to tell you that there was nothing good about the broadcast. And consider banning the GMs from talking in future drafts, even if we go back to the old way. Just have them come out and point at a prospect, Tim Murray-style.
Montreal native and NBA champion Lu Dort flying all the way out to L.A. to represent the Canadiens, only to have them trade not one but both of their first-round picks. They let him come out and hit the Big Red Button, which I guess is the consolation prize.
Also, shoutout to the NHL for apparently deciding to pretend the Dobson trade hadn't happened ten hours earlier so that Dort would have something to do. Did you see the size of that guy? If he wants to press the button, put a pin in the trade announcement and let the man press the button.
(Hey, do you think they at least toyed with the idea of treating the Big Red Button the way 'America's Got Talent' does the golden buzzer, with a big dramatic slow-motion build up? No? Yeah, I definitely didn't think about that either, never even watched that show, let's just move on.)
Man, that took a while.
I don't think we can blame the new format here, since it's not like previous drafts exactly flew by. But Friday's opening round was penciled into the TV schedule for a tedious four hours, and it was clear by the midway point that even that was going to be optimistic. This went on forever, even if you cut out the pause for laughter after Nikki Glaser joked about Brett Hull.
Was the new approach an improvement? It was not. But I'll be honest: I didn't hate it as much as some of you seemed to. Of all the things they tried, only the virtual Draft House thing was a total disaster. The other 90 percent of the show was fine. Rarely great, and consistently cringey in that NHL way we're used to by now, but rarely terrible.
Advertisement
But let's cut right to the question that a lot of fans were wondering about heading into this thing: Would this be both the first and the last of the decentralized drafts, with the concept being a one-and-done?
Well… we don't know. And that's good news, in a sense, because the only way we would be able to answer that question with any degree of confidence was if the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster. Seeing it work well enough, if only barely, buys the league a chance to try again next year if they choose.
Will they? I kind of doubt it. That's based less on what we saw on Friday and more on what we've heard from Bettman and others in recent weeks. The commissioner has made it clear that he's not exactly a huge fan of the decentralized approach, consistently reminding us that it wasn't his idea, and that he was open to going back to the old way.
That sounds noncommittal, and it is. But how many times have fans complained about something like the playoff format or replay review or shootouts or whatever else, only to have Bettman proactively shoot down any hope of anything ever changing? The fact that he's leaving the door open tells me that the writing may already be on the wall here, much like it was back in 2015 when Bettman clearly hated the new compensation rule for coaches and GMs and it was gone within a year. The vibes here felt similar going into Friday. And while we may not have seen anything that would shame the league into immediately reverting to the old way, we certainly didn't get the sort of home run presentation that would have everyone clamoring for one more year.
Save the Big Red Button, though. We can keep that.