A league-wide vote on whether to institute a decentralized draft will be conducted by NHL teams on Tuesday, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday.
"On Tuesday, at the end of business, is when teams need to have votes in on decentralizing the NHL Draft," Friedman said during the "Saturday Headlines" segment on Hockey Night in Canada.
"(It's) one vote per organization, so even if people inside one particular team feel differently, they only want one stance per organization. I hesitate to handicap this, but there certainly is a feeling that things could potentially change."
By decentralizing the draft, the NHL would essentially be moving toward a format that more closely resembles the drafts held by the NBA and NFL. The teams would stay in their own markets instead of attending in person and only the prospects would be on-site.
According to Friedman, a change, if approved, would most likely be implemented for 2025.
"It's very clear that people are very passionate about it," Friedman said while discussing the topic with Jeff Marek in their latest episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. "There's a lot of noise and feedback about it. I know that people are really talking about it. ... I'm really curious to see (how) this turns out."
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.