There Will Be Tweaks to the 2026 NHL Draft

The 2025 NHL Draft was not the traditional centralized draft that everyone had been accustomed to. For the first time, the NHL went to a decentralized draft. If you watched the draft and followed social media, there were mixed reactions. Again, the NHL did the best it could under the circumstances. NHL President and Content & Events Steve Mayer put together a show full of surprises that had some hits and misses. 

Should the NHL Move Back the Start of Free Agency?

But again, the NHL asked its GMs to vote to either keep the centralized draft or change to a decentralized draft. The league changed and yet again asked their GMs after this draft about going back. While the vote was closer than the previous year, the GMs still voted to maintain a decentralized draft. But again, why is the NHL allowing its GMs to vote on a League Event? And if things don’t go well again, Commissioner Gary Bettman will make note of it, saying ‘Well, this is what the GMs wanted.’

As @Hockey_Robinson reported the other day this is probably was the outcome.

Again why do NHL GMs have a day in League Events. Something @DennisTFP brought up.

Still not in favor of it. But I know #njdevils GM Tom Fitzgerald was in favor of a decentralized draft. #nhldraft https://t.co/exAwBvTNBw pic.twitter.com/KuSVrHOdek

— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) July 12, 2025

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly joined Dave Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein of Sirius XM NHL Network Radio during the European Media Player Tour and was asked about the future of a decentralized draft. Daly noted that the NHL is looking at changes to improve next year’s draft, as it was the first year of the decentralized format.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

NHL Rumors: Decentralized NHL Draft Could Be One and Done

Dave Pagnotta: “The NHL draft is continuing the decentralized format. How do you think things went in LA? And clearly, from the team’s perspective, they want to keep this going a little bit longer, at least one more shot. Just your thoughts and opinion with respect to how the draft went this past summer?”

Bill Daly: “Well, I think that it went fine. I mean, it did what it needed to do. What I’d say is, we had no pre-existing experience with the draft in that format. So there are things that obviously are easy fixes in terms of making it more consumable for an audience. The draft is supposed to be a business meeting. It’s not really supposed to be an entertainment event, and over time, it’s transformed a little bit in professional sports, and that’s no different in our sport.

I think it’ll be next year the improvements that we need to make will be made, and it’ll be, and the draft will be, what it will be. I still think there’s a segment within the league who like the old draft and want to go back to it. But obviously, there’s a more significant segment currently who feel like the environment that can be created in the ON LOCATION meeting rooms is better than the environment that exists on the draft floor in the traditional draft. So that has won the day for now.”

Here is my two cents and thoughts on the 2025 NHL Draft

They did the best job possible. Remember GMs wanted the format not the league

More @RodPedersenShow on @YouTube

Check it out ⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/ii8YitZ0dm https://t.co/avWXjuhMTR

— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) July 3, 2025

It is interesting to see that his last comment about the decentralized draft has won the day for now. You have to wonder if the changes the NHL implemented for the 2026 NHL Draft fall flat, there could be a chance in 2027 that the NHL returns to a centralized draft once again. But again, we all thought it was happening for 2026.

Decentralizing the NHL Draft is Such A Bad Idea

Again, the NHL should take the vote away from the GMs and tell them this is a League Event. Not to mention moving away from a centralized draft, following the success of Vegas and the Sphere, to a decentralized draft, with less than 10 percent of major media coverage, it raises questions about how this format for the NHL Draft truly benefits the game’s growth.

And while we are not even through the 2025-26 season, the 2026 NHL Draft is something to keep an eye on moving forward, especially if the format reverts to the old way.

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