Sunday thoughts about... decentralized drafts

Nobody was on board with the decentralized draft format (not even the NHL itself). Yet the owners wanted it. Let's never do that again.
2025 NHL Draft
2025 NHL Draft | Bruce Bennett/GettyImages

I was watching the NHL Draft on Friday while I was doing my work. It was on ESPN, which isn't certainly going to cram the whole event with commercials and LeBron James propaganda. It was also doing the decentralized draft idea, where nobody was present at Peacock Theater.

Surely, nothing could go wrong with having everybody stay home instead of taking a stroll on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right? Certainly, sitting in air-conditioned rooms and talking about who to pick won't ruffle a few feathers.

...Except it did. People hated the decentralized format, whether it was Vegas Golden Knights fans or hockey fans in general. The draft suddenly became long, commercialized crap, boring people to the point of taking an extended nap.

But here's the thing, dear reader. It was the owners in a 26-6 vote (Kelly McCrimmon was one of the dissenting votes).

When you're trying to outdo a draft in the Sphere from a year prior, you'll do whatever it takes to pull out all the stops. It doesn't matter if you have celebrities making every pick or you're holding it outdoors like the NFL Draft did this year. Therefore, I understand where Gary Bettman and the owners are coming from.

But in the end, it matters what the fans want. Regardless of if you're an out-of-touch billionaire or a regular fan, the people viewing the product always come first. What's that saying that businesses and managers use? Oh yeah, the customer's always right.

In the NHL, not everyone is friendly towards each other. Boston Bruins fans certainly don't like seeing the faces of Montreal Canadiens fans, nor do they like seeing the faces of Toronto Maple Leafs fans. The same goes for Golden Knights fans and Edmonton Oilers fans.

However! Most fans can agree on one thing. Let's never do this decentralized draft stuff ever again, please.