NHL Draft looking for a special experience for picks, fans
Defenseman Matthew Schaefer, right, and forward Michael Misa, NHL Central Scouting's top-two North American draft prospects, share the podium to address reporters at the league's annual combine being held at Buffalo's downtown Harborcenter facility on June 6, 2025. Credit: AP/John Wawrow
Prospects selected during the NHL Draft on Friday night and Saturday in Los Angeles will take to the stage at the Peacock Theater to greet Commissioner Gary Bettman or another league executive as well as the team representative — potentially a celebrity — that called his name. That’s fairly standard for the yearly selection process.
But then the prospect will enter what looks like a building constructed on the stage to virtually meet that team’s GM and other team officials. That marks a major difference for this year’s decentralized draft, with team personnel remaining at their respective facilities instead of sitting at tables on the draft floor.
“You heard decentralized and it’s, ‘What’s it going to be?’” NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer told Newsday in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “On the NHL side, we really want it to be unique and different and we want people to go,’ Whoa, OK, that was pretty cool.’ We wanted to make it feel like the kid is going to get a pretty special experience and something that they’re going to remember.”
The NHL switched its format to a decentralized draft for this year based upon the recommendation of the league’s general managers, the consensus being it was more beneficial to not have to travel with many teams conducting summer prospect camps immediately after the draft and the free agent market opening on Tuesday.
Mayer said he does not know whether this will turn out to be a one-year experiment, adding he’s not sure when the format for next year will be decided.
Mathieu Darche, conducting his first draft after being hired as Islanders GM/executive vice president, leans toward the previous centralized model but added he’s “comfortable with both situations.”
“I enjoy being on the draft floor,” Darche said on a teleconference on Tuesday to preview the draft. “I enjoy having everyone in one city. But other sports do it like this. I’m comfortable this way. With me just starting, it’s nice to have everybody here [on Long Island] and focused. I really enjoy being in-person, I won’t lie. But whatever the league decides, I’ll be doing my job.”
The Islanders own the draft’s first overall pick and not having to travel to Los Angeles will allow Darche to participate in the Islanders’ draft party at UBS Arena on Friday. The draft begins at 7 p.m. but Darche will first address fans in attendance at 5:30 p.m. before announcing his pick.
Fans at UBS Arena will also get some behind-the-scenes access to the draft with actor Kevin Connolly interviewing the first overall pick, expected to be defenseman Matthew Schaefer.
Connecting the drafted players with the remote team officials as well as making sure media not in Los Angeles would have access to the prospects was one of Mayer’s bigger concerns. The lessons learned from the two remote drafts the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NHL to conduct in 2020 and 2021 came in handy.
“It is a big deal from our standpoint,” Mayer said. “It gave us a bit of confidence. It gave us, certainly, a lot of learnings. You’re going to see some of the pieces of this draft are based on that experience. We’ve got 90 remote cameras coming in.”
The NHL is also producing a behind-the-scenes series on the draft to acquaint fans with the prospects.
“Welcome to the NHL” premiered on Tuesday night on ESPN2 with an episode entitled “Meet the Prospects.” A second episode, “Class of 2025,” will premiere in September.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
