The Montreal Canadiens have 14 picks in their possession for the 2020 NHL Draft. We could see them making those selections in early June.
The Montreal Canadiens were trending toward a top ten pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. They were supposed to host that event in late June. With the NHL season on pause, and the league still hoping to finish the regular season and have a postseason in the summer, it stands to reason that the draft will be held in September.
However, there is growing speculation that the draft will not only be held in June, but be held the first weekend of June. There are some tough logistical decisions to be made about how to run a draft before the actual season ends. However, baseball runs their MLB Draft every year in June, just when they are hitting the middle of their regular season.
It is possible to run the draft in June, but not allow players that are taken to play until the 2020-21 season, whenever that will be. The biggest issue would be trying to figure out what to do with conditional picks. There are teams that traded away picks, but what round they give up depends on if they make the playoffs, or win the Stanley Cup etc. If the draft is held in June, we wouldn’t know who wins the Cup or even qualifies for the postseason.
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While the league would have some decisions to make to sort out those conditional picks, the benefits of holding the NHL Draft in June far outweigh the negatives. It would be different for sure, and it would ruin the drama surrounding trades at the draft. You can’t trade a player for a pick at the draft if you have a playoff run coming up a few weeks later.
Of course, if you look back at the last few drafts, most of the trades involve picks only. Though there is always an incredible amount of rumours and intrigue around who will be dealt, the reality never lives up to the advanced billing. Most trades that would have happened at the draft, could occur following the postseason, whenever that is.
So, the league would have to figure out what to do with conditional picks, but they could just defer them to the 2021 draft. They would also have to embrace the fact no players would be traded during the draft, but we rarely see picks traded for players during the draft anyway. The draft would have to be held online, but that is going to happen whether it is in June or September.
So, there are a few wrinkles to iron out. However, the NFL Draft is going on this weekend, and is proving to be a huge success. The NHL should be following along and taking notes.
Remember the heat seeking, hyperbolic, media panic missiles that hammered the NFL about the optics of the draft. Uh, well, it delivered a ratings record last night. America wrapped their arms around it in record numbers. It’s an event brimming in hope and optimism.
— Colin Cowherd (@ColinCowherd) April 24, 2020
The NFL had record ratings for its draft which began on Thursday night. Sports fans are desperate for anything to watch. Tuning into Sportsnet to watch a playoff game that the Toronto Maple Leafs won isn’t cutting it for everybody. Also, how does Sportsnet get anyone to watch games that the Leafs won in the postseason? Pretty grainy footage when they go that far back in the vault.
Anyway. It is pretty obvious that sports fans are looking for anything to quench their thirst. If the NHL Draft were held before any live sports were taking place, they would also set ratings records. With all the potential lost revenue from not being able to have fans in the stands, why not max out revenue from advertisers at the draft?
Another thing that the NFL does is spreads their seven round draft out over three days. The NHL could do the same thing. Normally, the NHL holds its first round on a Friday night, and the next six round on Saturday afternoon.
Instead, they could follow the NFL’s lead. They could still host the first round on Friday night, but then have rounds two through four on Saturday night and then complete the final three rounds on Sunday afternoon. Sure, more people would tune in on Friday night than Saturday night but the league could make far more advertising revenue by having the stage at prime time on a Friday and Saturday night in June. There is literally nothing else on. Tons of hockey fans would watch the middle rounds on Saturday night and even the final few rounds on Sunday afternoon.
Yes, there would be a few logistical things to sort out around running a draft before the playoffs. However, if the NHL waits until the end of the postseason, they would be missing an opportunity to put the 2020 NHL Draft on the biggest (television) stage ever. There would be no competition at all in early June. In September? There could be college football, NFL games, MLB games and NBA postseason games or NBA Draft to work around.
No one knows what the summer is going to look like for sports. However, there is a high probability that the fall is going to be packed with every league trying to cram in games to make up for lost time. Why would the NHL want its draft to compete with that, when it could have no competition at all?