Decentralized format of 2025 NHL Draft will be 'something that a sports fan has never seen'

LOS ANGELES -- The 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be unlike any draft the League has held before. Depending on how the teams feel about it afterward, it could be unlike any draft the League will hold again.

It will be decentralized.

In the past, everyone would convene in one place. This time, 93 prospects will gather at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater. Celebrities, NHL alumni and NHL players will announce the selections. The teams will stay in their home cities, and the NHL will use more than 100 cameras and a technical innovation to turn it into a show for about 3,000 fans in attendance and the television audience.

“It’s going to be interesting,” NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer said. “I don’t know whether it’ll be one-and-done, but I do think we’re doing everything to make it pretty cool.”

The teams voted to decentralize the draft. A big reason? Focus. When the NHL held a virtual draft during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, teams found it easier to concentrate alone at home compared to sitting with the other teams on the floor of an arena with music playing.

“Some people like it; some people don’t,” Kings president Luc Robitaille said. “I 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’re in the room when it’s time to make a decision that can impact a franchise for 10-plus years, I think it's very important. Is 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.”

Once the teams voted to decentralize the draft, the NHL needed to find a way to make it a good experience for the fans and the prospects themselves.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will emcee the first round Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS). The pace might be quicker, because each team will not need to thank the host city and congratulate the Stanley Cup champion. After each selection, the NHL will use high-tech graphics to profile the prospect. He will come up on stage, receive his hat and jersey, and take a photo.

Then he will enter the “NHL Draft House.”

In the past, he would meet team officials on stage, then go to the team’s table on the floor of the arena. This time, he will step in front of a giant screen that will connect him to the team’s front office wherever it is. A reporter will prompt a conversation.

“We’ve decentralized, so therefore we are going back to what the NBA is doing, what the NFL is doing,” Mayer said. “So, how do we make our draft different from what they’re doing? I think that’s one of the key pieces that will be unique and something that a sports fan has never seen.

“And the beauty is that every team is different. It's the way to get all these great hockey personnel that are all over the League into the show.”

It won’t be easy. Mayer said the League will have 90 camera feeds from across North America, plus at least 20 cameras in the theater. Not only will there be cameras in each team’s room, but there will be cameras at draft parties, with prospects and for interviews with other people.

“That’s crazy,” Mayer said. “That’s quite a technical piece of work, and we have such a great team that gets all this stuff done. You hope that everything works, but there’s a lot happening.”

After the NHL Draft House, the prospect will go through “the gauntlet,” a series of interviews, photo shoots and autograph signings.

In the past, media from across the NHL would cover the draft in person. This time, most reporters will stay in their home cities, so the prospect will do a video conference as part of the process.

“For those players that are here, I am sure the NHL is going to make sure they have a wonderful weekend,” Kings general manager Ken Holland said. “This is what it is really about. We can work around it. We can work the phones. We can do anything, make trades, whatever. As long as the kids and the families like it, I am sure it is going to be great.”

Rounds 2-7 are Saturday (noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1). As usual, they will be brisk and businesslike.

Bettman called this a “test drive.” In the end, the teams will weigh the benefits of staying apart against the benefits of coming together.

“We’re going to do the decentralized draft,” Bettman said. “I’ve already heard a lot of people who voted for this saying, ‘Well, maybe we should go back to that.’ At some point over the summer, we’ll poll the clubs again. We can go either way. We’re easy. It’ll really be the preference of the clubs.”

NHL.com Senior Director of Editorial Shawn P. Roarke contributed to this report