Two years ago, the NHL made the controversial decision to go for a decentralized draft format. It would cause teams to bring much fewer people to the draft, and in a virtual world, it made sense on paper to save on the budget. Teams were bringing dozens of people to the site of each draft to make sure they had the right people in place in case the board fell in a certain way.
However, the first decentralized draft was universally panned. There was much less access to the players; all of the canned interviews after each pick were pretty terrible; there were essentially no moments on the floor, and the trades were few and far between.
The second iteration of the draft, which came this year when the New Jersey Devils selected Alexander Command 12th overall, just felt impersonal. The Devils didn’t have a first-round pick in 2025, so we didn’t get the full experience as fans or analysts. This year, something just felt off.
Well, none of that matters because the NHL is going back to the decentralized format. According to Pierre Lebrun of The Athletic, the NHL has already agreed to do a decentralized draft, which will take place June 25-26, 2027. So, not only did they double down on the draft being in a terrible format, but they also brought back a draft that was just a couple of days before free agency begins (assuming that free agency is going to continue to be on July 1st).
The NHL cannot quite the decentralized NHL Draft format
"The league didn’t seek feedback from the 32 clubs after the second decentralized draft in June, probably because there wasn’t the same level of outcry as there was with the first attempt in 2025.Pierre Lebrun, The Athletic
So it would appear the decentralized draft is here to stay."
While Lebrun claims there wasn't "as much outcry" for this year's draft, just about everyone said that they still didn't like it. Nobody was coming around to the decentralized format. In fact, we assume the NHL didn't discuss it because they don't want to hear the feedback. They can't be forced to change something if they never hear the feedback.
That's how that works, right?
The NHL keeps making decisions that seem to not be in the best interest of the leagues or the 32 teams. Having the full shebang of draft access, including media members, teams, families, etc, at the draft made it feel like an event. This year’s draft felt like we could have watched it on social media and had the same impact.
Add us as a preferred source on Google