You could argue all of those complaints are reasonable. You could also point out that absolutely none of them have anything to do with the fans, or the viewers at home. The NHL is ostensibly an entertainment product, but they tend to forget that minor detail roughly (checks notes) all the time. Is saving a few bucks worth it if one of your biggest nights looks worse as a result?<\/p>\n
Maybe not, but that\u2019s only if it looks worse. Maybe it could be fine. Heck, maybe it would even be an improvement \u2014 it\u2019s not like the old way got rave reviews each and every year. Then again, last year\u2019s Sphere experience would be a tough act to follow<\/a>.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t love the change when it was first announced, but I was intrigued, especially after reading Julian\u2019s piece about how it would all work<\/a>. I wanted to give it a fair shot. Here are my thoughts on the good, the bad and everything in between from Friday night\u2019s opening round.<\/p>\n The good<\/strong><\/p>\n Gary Bettman still getting booed. Look, go ahead and change the things you think you need to change, but some traditions are sacred.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t much. Call it a smattering. But it was enough to remind you that yes, there were some real fans in attendance, not just the draft prospects themselves. (I think. Wait, did any of the prospects boo Bettman? Because if so, I\u2019m skipping the waiting period and putting them all in the Hall of Fame.)<\/p>\n The bad<\/strong><\/p>\n Headline fatigue. The first round of the draft isn\u2019t always the biggest story of a busy week, but you\u2019d at least like it to be the big news of the day. But by the time things got started on Friday night, hockey fans were already chewing on five major stories that had broken in the hours before.<\/p>\n We had a major blockbuster<\/a> involving two of Friday\u2019s first-rounders and Noah Dobson. We had a weird salary dump<\/a>. We had two of the three biggest names on the UFA board sign extensions, with Sam Bennett<\/a> and John Tavares<\/a> both taking discounts to stay put. Oh, and we also got word of a brand-new CBA<\/a>. By the time the first boos hit Bettman\u2019s ears, some fans were probably all hockey newsed out. That would have been bad news, since they still had roughly fourteen hours of the first round to get through.<\/p>\n The\u2026 I\u2019m not sure, actually<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s just say it \u2013 Bettman was working the room up there. They took away his podium (except for trades, which we\u2019ll get to in a minute), meaning he had to free-roam around the stage. That\u2019s harder than you think, and he did\u2026 OK? I think he did OK. In fact, I think the boss was kind of feeling it out there.<\/p>\n The old, awkward Bettman did show up occasionally, including when he had to go back to the same tired \u201cI love the passion\u201d routine when he got booed. But overall, he\u2019s clearly put in some work on the whole public speaking thing. It may have taken him 30 years, and we\u2019re basically comparing him to Roger Goodell and Adam Silver, which isn\u2019t exactly the world\u2019s highest bar. But sure, he cleared it. He even got a genuine chuckle from the \u201cI\u2019m not that short\u201d line about the mic before one of the Blackhawks\u2019 picks.<\/p>\n I\u2019m saying nice things about Gary Bettman and I hate it, let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\n The good<\/strong><\/p>\n Matthew Schaefer\u2019s emotional reaction to going first overall.<\/p>\n There wasn\u2019t much suspense on the top pick this year, but the moment was still memorable based on Schaefer\u2019s tears, as the top pick and his family shared the moment while honoring his mom, Jennifer, who passed away in 2024. It was a touching moment, and the broadcast handled it in a way that gave it room without feeling overboard.<\/p>\n Matthew Schaefer goes first overall to the New York Islanders \ud83e\udde1\ud83d\udc99<\/p>\n What a moment for the @ErieOtters<\/a> defenceman at the #NHLDraft<\/a> \ud83e\udd72 pic.twitter.com\/QkNfeBGruh<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The very, very bad<\/strong><\/p>\n Those virtual meetings between the prospects and the front offices that just drafted them, in the area dubbed \u201cThe Draft House.\u201d<\/p>\n Yeah, this didn\u2019t work. At all. Once Schaefer\u2019s emotional moment was done, the rest of the conversations ranged from mildly awkward to borderline painful. Put it this way: Under the old system, the networks never bothered to mic everyone up for those handshake moments that used to happen on the big stage. Now we know why \u2014 they\u2019re not very interesting. If we keep this format, we can go ahead and scrap that bit.<\/p>\n pic.twitter.com\/UPG9wxJjx6<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I don\u2019t think anyone heard about this whole idea and thought, \u201cThat will probably be fascinating, the only people who are more charismatic than hockey players are hockey executives.\u201d But it\u2019s worth trying new things. Sometimes they work. Sometimes your audio is all screwed up and echoing, there are weird pauses everywhere, and nothing interesting gets said.<\/p>\n I realize a lot of planning goes into this sort of thing, but someone should have called an audible after James Hagens had to be told to wave at the Bruins\u2019 front office like he was a toddler seeing the pandas at the zoo.<\/p>\n The good<\/strong><\/p>\n The reaction to The Draft House.<\/p>\n Man, did you all ever hate this part. (See the replies here<\/a> for a sampling.) Yes, that counts as a good thing. Hockey fans are never happier than when we\u2019re all dunking on something at the same time. It\u2019s been a while. I missed you guys. Bring it in. (Realizes you can\u2019t hear me because the Zoom is laggy.) OK, never mind, moving on\u2026<\/p>\n The mixed bag<\/strong><\/p>\n The celebrity pick announcers.<\/p>\n The concept makes sense. We\u2019re used to the actual pick announcements being mumbled into a microphone, so contracting out some charisma wasn\u2019t the worst idea. Besides, it means a break from Bettman, and maybe even a reminder that there are some cool people out there who like hockey.<\/p>\n Did it work? Sometimes. It was an eclectic mix, let\u2019s just say. We had a pro wrestler, a yelling golfer, Charles Barkley Zoom-ing in from the smallest room in his unfinished basement, Jerry Bruckheimer being introduced in a way that was clearly designed to trick you into thinking it might be Brad Pitt, the guys who sang that song you liked in 1998, a football player, actors from that movie you liked in 1992, the \u201cEntourage\u201d guy, the \u201ccut it out\u201d guy from that sitcom you liked in 1987, and Barry Trotz doing the first Predators picks on his own because there are no famous people in Nashville.<\/p>\n But we also had Meredith Gaudreau and Happy Gilmore, so\u2026 yeah, ups and downs.<\/p>\n \u201cNumber 18, is that Gilmore again?\u201d<\/p>\n Happy Gilmore AKA Adam Sandler made the Bruins\u2019 pick in the #NHLDraft<\/a> \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfa5 @NHL<\/a> | @NHLBruins<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/ZS3ayuA0nm<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) June 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The bad<\/strong><\/p>\n The lack of early-round trades.<\/p>\n You know what, this one\u2019s on me. Every year, there are rumors about top picks being moved, every year I get hyped about it, and every year nothing actually happens. At some point, you either figure it out or you don\u2019t, and I\u2019ve apparently chosen the second option.<\/p>\n That said\u2026 I mean, this was the year it had to happen, right? You had the Islanders holding not just the first pick, but also a pair of mid-round picks from the Dobson trade, in a draft where a local kid was projected to go early. It was probably too much to hope they might trade down out of the first spot to take James Hagens, but trading back up into the top 10 felt like a gimme. Once Hagens slipped out of the top five, everyone was thinking it<\/a>. But it didn\u2019t happen, with Hagens ultimately going seventh to the Bruins.<\/p>\n Did the Islanders even try? Almost certainly, but it takes two to tango, and as you may have heard, these trades are really hard. Once the picks start flying, expecting any team to embrace the risk involved in trading out of the top 10 is probably wishful thinking.<\/p>\n We should have seen it coming. But remember, we were told that this was part of the reason for the new format \u2014 that having some privacy to work on moves away from the prying ears of rival teams might juice the action. It decidedly did not. There were no picks involving players during the draft, and the first trade involving a pick didn\u2019t come until the Flyers moved up to 12 in a deal with the Penguins. Which we found out about, thanks to\u2026<\/p>\n The good<\/strong><\/p>\n The Big Red Button.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure what ESPN viewers saw, but Sportsnet introduced its broadcast with a quick tour. It included a podium on the stage that we were told would be for announcing trades. We also got a glimpse of a large red button, which was not mentioned or explained.<\/p>\n As a viewer, you hoped it might be for a trap door that could swing into action if anyone tried to ramble on instead of just making a pick. But no, it turned out to be the \u201cwe have a trade to announce\u201d button, which we finally learned when Kris Letang\u2019s kid got to hit it roughly 90 minutes in. We got a horn noise and a quick scoreboard animation, in case you were wondering. It\u2019s the sort of thing I usually roll my eyes at, but then my kids tell me that I hate whimsy and fun. Which I absolutely do, for the record. But let\u2019s call the Big Red Button a winking nod toward what\u2019s often the most exciting part of any draft. We just wish they\u2019d used it more.<\/p>\n The to-be-determined<\/strong><\/p>\n The drafted players having to high-five their way down a reception line of fellow prospects.<\/p>\n As several of you pointed out, they put all the prospects expected to go at the top of the draft near the back of the seating area, meaning they had to work their way through congratulatory hugs and high-fives from their colleagues. A lot of you didn\u2019t like that. I didn\u2019t mind. To settle the dispute, we\u2019ll refer to the self-appointed expert on handshake etiquette and wait for Paul Maurice to weigh in.<\/p>\n The good<\/strong><\/p>\n No GMs wasting our time by thanking the host city, congratulating the Stanley Cup winner, and saying hi to their fans back home.<\/p>\n We\u2019d seen the league clamp down on the exceedingly annoying preamble in recent years, but this year it was mostly absent other than a brief wobble when Mikael Samuelsson showed up for some reason and tried to slip in a Panthers shoutout.<\/p>\n Remember that when somebody tries to tell you that there was nothing good about the broadcast. And consider banning the GMs from talking in future drafts, even if we go back to the old way. Just have them come out and point at a prospect, Tim Murray-style.<\/p>\n Luguentz Dort shakes hands with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman as he announces a trade. (Kirby Lee \/ Imagn Images)The funny<\/strong><\/p>\n Montreal native and NBA champion Lu Dort flying all the way out to L.A. to represent the Canadiens, only to have them trade not one but both of their first-round picks. They let him come out and hit the Big Red Button, which I guess is the consolation prize.<\/p>\n Also, shoutout to the NHL for apparently deciding to pretend the Dobson trade hadn\u2019t happened ten hours earlier so that Dort would have something to do. Did you see the size of that guy? If he wants to press the button, put a pin in the trade announcement and let the man press the button.<\/p>\n (Hey, do you think they at least toyed with the idea of treating the Big Red Button the way \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent\u201d does the golden buzzer, with a big dramatic slow-motion build up? No? Yeah, I definitely didn\u2019t think about that either, never even watched that show, let\u2019s just move on.)<\/p>\n The bad<\/strong><\/p>\n Man, that took a while.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think we can blame the new format here, since it\u2019s not like previous drafts exactly flew by. But Friday\u2019s opening round was penciled into the TV schedule for a tedious four hours, and it was clear by the midway point that even that was going to be optimistic. This went on forever, even if you cut out the pause for laughter after Nikki Glaser joked about Brett Hull.<\/p>\n The bottom line, and the big question<\/p>\n Was the new approach an improvement? It was not. But I\u2019ll be honest: I didn\u2019t hate it as much as some of you seemed to. Of all the things they tried, only the virtual Draft House thing was a total disaster. The other 90 percent of the show was fine. Rarely great, and consistently cringey in that NHL way we\u2019re used to by now, but rarely terrible.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s cut right to the question that a lot of fans were wondering about heading into this thing: Would this be both the first and the last of the decentralized drafts, with the concept being a one-and-done?<\/p>\n Well\u2026 we don\u2019t know. And that\u2019s good news, in a sense, because the only way we would be able to answer that question with any degree of confidence was if the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster. Seeing it work well enough, if only barely, buys the league a chance to try again next year if they choose.<\/p>\n Will they? I kind of doubt it. That\u2019s based less on what we saw on Friday and more on what we\u2019ve heard from Bettman and others in recent weeks. The commissioner has made it clear that he\u2019s not exactly a huge fan of the decentralized approach, consistently reminding us that it wasn\u2019t his idea, and that he was open to going back to the old way<\/a>.<\/p>\n That sounds noncommittal, and it is. But how many times have fans complained about something like the playoff format or replay review or shootouts or whatever else, only to have Bettman proactively shoot down any hope of anything ever changing? The fact that he\u2019s leaving the door open tells me that the writing may already be on the wall here, much like it was back in 2015 when Bettman clearly hated the new compensation rule for coaches and GMs and it was gone within a year<\/a>. The vibes here felt similar going into Friday. And while we may not have seen anything that would shame the league into immediately reverting to the old way, we certainly didn\u2019t get the sort of home run presentation that would have everyone clamoring for one more year.<\/p>\n Save the Big Red Button, though. We can keep that.<\/p>\n (Top photo: Kirby Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26547468-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n