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Even insiders hated the decentralized draft experiment
Mathis Therrien
Even insiders hated the decentralized draft experiment
Credit: Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, could have enjoyed the format of last night’s National Hockey League draft. Everything was designed to make it as boring as possible, and above all, it was absolutely interminable. It’s a good thing we finished before the start of the second round at noon today. In short, it was a […]
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, could have enjoyed the format of last night’s National Hockey League draft.

Everything was designed to make it as boring as possible, and above all, it was absolutely interminable.

It’s a good thing we finished before the start of the second round at noon today.

In short, it was a really awful evening to watch last night, which is basically a real shame, considering that the draft is usually an event that the NHL does very well.

But yesterday’s decentralized draft really sucked, and there was nothing entertaining about it.

It was extremely long and boring on TV, and even on site, the atmosphere was pretty mediocre, when you’d have thought, from the applause, that we’d reached the stage of surnames beginning with “M” at some university graduation ceremony.

So the fans were greatly disappointed and annoyed, and according to Chris Johnston, so were the people in the business.

Indeed, the reputable tipster said as much at the start of the latest episode of Insider Trading, when he shared that he had conducted a poll on this famous decentralized draft among people in the business.

And virtually unanimously, the opinions all pointed in the direction of hating the draft format.

When we talk about people in the business, we’re talking about teams, players’ agents, scouts, etc. So, the fact that even the people in the business didn’t like the format was a big surprise.

So the fact that even the people directly involved in the event didn’t like the format really shows just how painful and horrible an evening it was.

The walk to the stage for the drafted players was far too long, the moment on stage was awkward due to the lack of people to congratulate the youngsters, and the players’ little Zoom moments with their new team’s executives were absolutely atrocious and even more awkward.

Talk about James Hagens talking to ghosts when he arrived to meet the Bruins.

Seriously, it’s a good thing the Canadiens didn’t have a first-round draft pick after all, because this would have been an extremely uncomfortable and painful moment to watch.

Just imagine an emotional Justin Carbonneau (for example) being drafted by the Habs, only to see Kent Hughes and his cohorts completely frozen in the Zoom screen.

Guess the Habs wanted to avoid that embarrassment, and that’s why they traded their picks for Noah Dobson. #Sarcasm

In short, it was a really bad idea to decentralize the draft, and what’s more, according to reports, the NHL didn’t even save that much money.

Let’s just say we went from the potential best draft ever in 2024 in the Las Vegas sphere, to the worst ever with Zoom calls from Los Angeles.

Let’s hope the 2026 draft returns to the normal, non-decentralized format.


overtime

– It doesn’t make sense how long it was yesterday.

– Noah Dobson: his work has long been recognized. [BPM Sports]

– Nice outing.

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