NHL To Bring Back Decentralized Draft? And Where’s Next Year’s Schedule?

NHL To Bring Back Decentralized Draft? And Where’s Next Year’s Schedule?

The NHL’s off season has been here a while now, but where’s next year’s schedule? And why are they planning on a repeat of the decentralized draft? We’re going to answer those questions and talk some summer hockey. All that and more on today’s Locked On NHL podcast. You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Happy Friday everyone and thanks for making Lockdown NHL your first listen every day. I am Rachel Donner from Locked on Flyers. I’m here each and every Friday with Gil Martin of Locked on Islanders. You can find us over on YouTube or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe to get our latest episode as soon as it’s available here on the Locked Podcast Network. Your team every day. And today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. How are we doing today, Gil? We are doing okay. It’s uh getting to be that time where the hockey world slows down a little bit. Uh and it’s been a heck of a march. The last six weeks, eight weeks, it’s been like a like a sprint. So now maybe everybody catches their breath just a little bit. Just a little bit. Because according to Elliot Freriedman, there is a vote happening to decide whether or not to run it back when it comes to the decentralized draft that we just experienced. Uh, you know, feels like a year ago now, but it was only a little over a week at this point. But that being said, you know, according to Elliot Freriedman, it appears though the vote is going to be in favor of repeating the decentralized draft, which I gotta say, I I am I mean, I’m surprised, but I’m also not surprised. You know what I mean? That’s what the NHL does, right? I mean, unfortunately, the NHL is known for not making the best decisions when it comes to marketing the game and promoting it and making things good for as many people as they can. And so, at least we could say they’re consistent. Oh, that is certain. And it’s just like, come on. Like, read the room, y’all. Like, what are what are we doing here? I I it feels like from a fan perspective, and you know, anybody out there can correct me if I’m wrong, but it just felt like a that first night dragged on forever. Yes. So, whatever they do, if it’s going to be decentralized, they have to figure out a way to move it along a lot faster and stick to the clock because that was that was a huge issue, right? They were so slow on that clock. And then the frustrating thing is, you know, so there were three minutes in between picks and if a trade happened, they got another three minutes. Like give them a minute maybe, but like if you’re making the trade, you should know what you’re trading for. Like this isn’t another three minutes, you know? I know. I know. And it just everything was so awkward. Like the photos were awkward, the interviews were awkward, the players seemed uncomfortable. They didn’t get the big family picture with the team and the executives and all of that. Like it just like there was so much to me that was missing from the draft this year. And I just like I’m struggling to find an upside to it. Like help me out here. Like what are we doing? And and here’s what you what you omitted from your analysis when you said come on read the room. They did read the room. the room of 32 owners who don’t want to spend the money to have a unified draft in one location. That’s the room they read. That’s who Gary Bman works for. He doesn’t work for you and me and the fans. He works for 32 owners who decided that they would rather save a couple of bucks uh and have another decentralized draft even though it just felt like something was missing throughout the entire procedure. Yeah, I think to me it didn’t seem like they would have saved money based on what we saw. It seems like it would have been more expensive because there’s more technology involved. I mean, it’s just travel budgets, right? Is that what we’re talking about? That’s airplanes, hotels, food. I mean, you add that up for how many people is each team sending? So now, now they the economies of the cities that they’re having the draft in. Is that what we’re saying? Yeah. I I mean it having everybody in what first of all let’s start with the the simple stuff. Having all the general managers and coaches and and front office staffs in one place helps trades happen. It helps move things along. I attended a draft back in Newark. I think it was about what 2016 it was in Newark 15 something like that. It was a wonderful experience because the whole hockey world was there. I met Willie O Re. I was able to speak to all the different draft picks in one place and and the general managers and everything that I needed to do as a journalist or if I wanted to see it as a fan, it was all there. And it just having it on Zoom, you know, it just I it’s better than like, okay, if if if we had another, god forbid, pandemic and we needed to do it. Okay, I get it. But it’s not the real thing. No, it’s not. And I guess, you know, struggling to find the upside. I suppose if you’re a team and you want to have a war room to make sure you’re tracking your board properly and you can have like those conversations, having them in a quiet private place like I get that to some degree where it’s just easier to have those internal conversations without having to hide what you’re saying to other teams. Um, you know, hide your computer screens. You can put a big board up on the wall and nobody needs to see that. I just Zoom is for though. You have those right. Exactly. That’s what your team offices and you hook up with them on Zoom and problem solved. Right. I guess so. like it. You could put some of those people remotely and have have your workroom and have all of that remotely, but still have your main representatives rep, you know, represented in person. And I liked seeing all the tables and I liked seeing, you know, people running around and uh you could see GM talking to GM in person and maybe get an inkling that a trade was about to go down. Like I I just it was so uncomfortable. Like this draft was just uncomfortable at best. Something was missing. Uh I I mean something was just lacking in the overall presentation and feel of the event. Now look, do I believe that they could find a way to quicken things along the second year they do it? Yeah. I I think they could trim a half an hour off of the run time of the first round just by, hey, we did this once. This is what we need to do to streamline it a little bit. But not having everyone all together in the same place is just kind of hollow. Yeah, I think so too. And it it just was very clear to the vast majority of the fans reactions that I observed to the fan reactions of locked on flyers in in our comments on YouTube. I don’t know about the Islanders fans, especially with the Islanders having the first overall pick. What were the Islanders fan reaction to it? Well, see the the Islander fans, a lot of them were at the draft party which was at the UBS Arena and you know they the general manager could speak from the you know yeah connect the fans uh but again it’s remote. I mean we had a great moment. Okay, here’s the one thing and and it was didn’t the Anaheim Ducks first round pick go down to Disneyland and and and do a remote broadcast from there like a half hour after being selected or an hour like that was a nice little touch, but there are 30. Sure, they could have done that anyway because they’re just down the road. Correct. But there but there you know that only works for one or two teams, right? You can’t do that otherwise. So I I don’t know. It it to me it it just was less than ideal. And why not? Like I I get it if there’s an emergency and you can’t do it, but do it if you can. It’s just it’s better. It’s just better to have everyone in one place. I agree wholeheartedly. And I know it’s apparently not going to happen, but man, they they better have a plan for improvement. And Gary Batman’s probably got senioritis in terms of him being on the way out as commissioner. So I don’t know how involved he’ll be if if this is going to be like a Bill Daily show next time around or what’s going to happen there. But man, they they got to make some changes in order to make it work. That’s that’s all I got to say. But I am very disappointed. And I am also disappointed in the lack of an NHL schedule. I’m sitting here. It’s July 11th and nothing nothing. We are in the dog days of summer and we don’t know what the games look like for next year. We’re going to talk about that issue coming up next. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with friends or family? Maybe it’s game day and you suddenly realize you want to be in the stands. That’s exactly where game time comes in. It’s the easiest way to grab lastminute tickets without the stress. With the money you save on tickets, you could splurge on food, drinks, merch, or even invite a bigger group to come with you. Game time makes it all possible. Game time makes buying tickets fast and simple. Prices on the app actually drop the closer you get to first pitch. And they’ve got incredible lastminute deals, clear seat views, and a lowest price guarantee that takes the worry out of buying. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Just download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L O C K E D O NHL for $20 off. Download Game Time today. The last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So, now that we’ve gotten it out of our system about the draft, we’re going to continue the airing of the grievances. I feel like this is festivist summer edition or something here. But uh I got the poll over there. It’s off camera. Okay. Okay. So last year we got the 202425 schedule on July 2nd. Again, it is July 11th. Still no NHL schedule. We just got the AHL schedule. And to get that before the NHL schedule, uh, it’s very disappointing. And supposedly we’re getting it next Wednesday, July 16th, according to several reports out there. Don’t have confirmation of that for sure. But that being said, you know, that is two whole weeks later cutting into the summer. And like that is also ineffective I think from a league perspective and from a marketing perspective, right? Yeah. I mean, look, if you’re a season ticket holder, you want to start planning out your schedule and what games am I going to, what games do I want to try to give away or sell or whatever. You you need to make flight arrangements. You need to make hotel reservations. if you’re going to road games, all of these things uh need to be figured out by the people who are paying your bills, NHL. Uh and look, maybe the finalizing the Olympic situation is one of the reasons for this delay, but like didn’t you have a schedule ready to go? I mean, like, and maybe you had to make a couple of tweaks here and there, but once the details were worked out, I couldn’t imagine taking more than 48 hours to figure out whatever tweaks you needed to make and just get this thing out there, right? That’s what I don’t understand is like why wasn’t it mostly ready, right? And and I think, you know, that’s your your first point about season ticket holders. That’s the main thing for me is that season ticket holders need that flexibility. They need time to be able to distribute their tickets, to be able to put them up for sale if they want to, to be able to make those decisions, and it makes it harder for them. On the team side of things, you know, they can’t market the schedule. They can’t market the promotions that they have around the schedule. Like we don’t we have like a date for the season to start, but we don’t even have first games out there yet. No. No. Which so they usually even put that out a little bit early that everybody knows what their home opener is, right? Like ahead of the earlier in the week. We don’t know that yet, but sure, maybe. But, you know, we don’t even know that yet for sure. And you know, maybe the teams do know those schedules behind the scenes and they’re able to plan their content, but you know, we don’t know that for sure. But I think, you know, the other big issues here is that the league by delaying the schedule is missing out on the advantage of the momentum from the draft and free agency. That there’s a lot of buzz around hockey, around the draft. There’s a lot of buzz in free agency with all the big new contracts and you know the Mitch Marner contract and all of that stuff that went down now like when when can Vegas see him play? When can Vegas fans see him play? They would like to know that, right? Yeah. Yeah. And and then maybe opposing fans want to know when is Vegas coming to my city. So or Toronto fans want to know when their game there one game against Vegas at home. Right. That’s correct. Or maybe they have to sneak over the to Buffalo for another game. But yeah. Yeah, that’s true. But or or you know or or to Ottawa, but bottom line is you want to start to make those plans. And look, it also hurts the teams because they need to market the ticket plans, the the promotion dates as you mentioned, and then even just like you have your partial plans, you have the uh you know the division rivalry plan where you get seven games, one against each team in your div like they have all these packages that they put together, right, to try to entice fans. You’re losing valuable time with regard to that as well. So, uh, you know, is it is it the biggest tragedy in the world? No. But is it not smooth marketing and and and you know, the best way to do business by the NHL? Yeah. It’s it’s not the best. Yeah. Listen, given the overlap, at least in in my hockey circles, between hockey fans and F1 fans, we’re all moved on to Christian her getting fired by Red Bull. like it, you know, hockey is kind of taking a backseat here. And that’s that’s the lack of, you know, taking advantage of of when striking when the iron is hot, so to speak. Y and the other side of it is the major hockey sports media, they’re at their cottages now. They’re fishing. Yeah. You know, they’re playing golf. So to like release the schedule and force them to come out of hibernation for the summer is, you know, I mean that that’s a little bit of an ask for them as well. Yeah, it it is an ask and uh you know what else can you do that this is where we’re at. the league has not gotten the schedule ready in the usual timely fashion and they’ll have to deal with the fallout of that. Yeah. So I think, you know, from a a planning perspective for, you know, for people like us, it’s maybe a little bit more intense in terms of figuring out our plans for the upcoming season based on the schedule and looking at when we’re playing certain teams and when are the big road trips and when are the big home stands and all of that. I think that’s something that’s important for fans a as well and not and not just us because you know again it’s not even just if you’re attending but it’s like figuring out like what streaming packages am I going to need because you want the broadcast information as well right yeah you gota and and you know used to be you just got one package and you were you were all set not so fast uh you know there are blackouts and there are secondary things to consider and just you know unfortunately if you want to watch every game you got to spend a lot of money these days because you need multiple packages. So yeah it it there are a lot of reasons why this is less than ideal but it is where we’re at right now. Yeah. So hopefully by the time we are talking next Friday, we have the schedule and can start setting up our calendars. Yeah. Now, if you’re the NHL, and I’ll just play devil’s advocate here and make a counterargument. Here we are. By the time the schedule comes out, it’ll be mid July. Instead of everybody not thinking about hockey in mid July, you’ll have a day or two where this announcement is made and the NHL instead of everyone being talking about fishing and cottages and the like will actually talk about hockey for a day or two. Uh so maybe that’s a slight Yeah. You know that maybe that’s a slight benefit to the NHL. I don’t think it outweighs the negatives, but I’m throwing it out there. Yeah. Well, I don’t know, man. I’m just frustrated by it and I I luckily I have a show that I can talk about, right? We can air your grievances by the festivist poll and just get it all out of your system. So, all right. Well, I feel better already. And again, hopefully next week we can talk about the schedule andor, you know, some things about like who has the most backtobacks and all of that stuff and air those grievances this time around. But we thought we’d end things on a much higher note and say what hockey is there to watch over the summer. We’re going to talk about the events you can take advantage of coming up next. All right. So, summer hockey is underway and there’s a few things going on. I think one of the more premier things which is a little harder for us to watch in North America here. Uh but you can stream it as is my understanding on Match TV and that is the match of the year in the KHL over in Russia and they take uh Russian hockey players with NHL experience and some of those allstar kind of level players including Alex Ovetchkin facing up against KHL all stars in an exhibition game. And it seems like it’s going to be a ton of fun. Like I said, Alex Ovuchkin is playing in it. Our Tammy Paneran is one of the other uh sponsors there and you know, you’ve got uh a whole bunch of other top players like Shurkin is going to be in net for it. But it does seem like a good time. Yeah. And uh you know, hopefully you get a little rivalry going with the NHL guys and the KHL guys. They all know each other. They all grew up together. So, it’s a friendly rivalry, but you know, you you need your hockey fix in the summer. That’s definitely one way to get it. And there’s some great players involved in that game as well. Yeah. So, that game is on Sunday. Um other players include Carell Capri off. Umnikov is playing. Um Andre Vaselki is playing. So it uh Sergey Burbski should be over there. Andre Kuseno, uh Pablo Bvich is in there. So seems like it’ll be a good lineup of Russian NHL stars in that one. The other summer hockey thing that’s going on as we speak is the Beauty League up in Minnesota. And this is one of my favorite things about summer hockey because not only are there some random NHLers, you know, sprinkled in throughout these lineups, you know, it’s a good way for these guys to stay in shape, um, it it’s really like not super contact because nobody wants to get hurt. So, it just makes it a lot of fun. And the rules are completely different. So, they’ve got two halves, 23 minutes per half. It’s fouron four hockey, so there’s a lot of open ice to deal with. Plus, they have like these two-minute windows where goals count double um and you can kind of pick when your double scoring period is going to be. But if the other team scores during that period, they also get double points. So, it’s, you know, it just makes it fun and interesting. And um the overtime gets wonky as well with like it starts oneon-one and then there’s like you add another player when somebody’s it’s just like the rules are wild and different and it that’s like makes it fun. And I think it also is fun because the players are having fun. They’re not taking it too seriously. Look, they’re competitive by nature, but at the same time they’re having a good time. And if they’re having a good time, we’re having a good time. And it’s just kind of contagious. So, I enjoy it. I I always try to catch at least parts of a couple of games, if not a few games. Right. And yeah, it it’s just something to keep us tuned into hockey over July and, you know, throughout the summer. Yeah. And I think, you know, for some of the guys that play in it, especially the NHLers, you know, it’s you there’s some AHLers in it, too. It’s just a way for the guys to keep their legs moving and keep it fresh over the summer without overdoing it. Yep. Yeah. And it’s it’s a good supplement to their summer workouts and their summer skill building, whatever it is that they’re doing. Yeah. And, you know, it also would give some guys a chance to work out together, to practice a little bit and skate, you know, and be a little competitive without being cutthroat competitive uh during the off season. So, I I love it. I think it’s a great institution and I’m glad that it’s back for another year. Yeah. I wish they had them in more than one place like something similar to that like they should franchise or something and so they it takes place in a couple of different places around North America. What you do is you get four locations maybe and then you have the champion of each location meet in a big finale super tournament. Super tournament. But, you know, I don’t think they want it to be that big uh under the circumstances. So, it would be great for the fans, but the players need a little break, you know. I mean, uh seasons are long enough as it is. Yeah. No, that is absolutely true. And the other thing about it is that so there’s four men’s teams and two women’s teams. and with the PWHL. We’re going to talk a little bit more about this on the Saturday show with me and Erica on the Women’s Hockey Report, but it’s nice to have like women’s teams there as well in the PWHL represented. So, yeah, it it it is a good time and it’s it’s good old Minnesota hockey and you love to see that for sure. The other big event that takes place over the summer is the World Junior Summer Showcase. And that is sort of a preliminary tournament to help the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland specifically uh get a jump on figuring out who’s going to be on their World Junior roster come December. And so I think it’s a good sneak preview of that uh winter tournament, but uh we get to watch it over the summer. Yeah. And you know, Team USA, for example, invited 42 players to their their camp. Uh the Islanders, for one, had four, which I think is four more than they’ve had in the last five years. But, you know, uh glad to see it. And it it gives you an idea of, you know, who some of the top players at that age level are, what we can expect come December. And, you know, when you start putting together draft lists and prospect rankings, you know, guys who get invited to this but don’t make the actual team in December, you kind of put that in the back of your mind. And maybe one or two guys don’t get invited to the showcase but do end up on the team. And you these are little things that when you start thinking about the draft and the prospect pool, you kind of have to measure these things, right? So, as you mentioned, we do know who’s on that list for team USA and team Sweden as well. And um again, similarly for the Flyers, for instance, we got two guys on the list so far on Team USA, and we haven’t had a USA guy in a hot second. So, I’m excited to actually pay attention to team USA again. Um, also have Jack Bergland on team Sweden who’s going to try and make the cut on that roster. I don’t know if he’s going to make it, but um certainly glad to see him on that preliminary roster as well, but again, it is just the four teams. It takes place uh between July 25th and August 2nd. So, we have that to look forward to in a couple weeks. So, I I think it there are ways to get through the summer when it comes to hockey and not having the regular NHL schedule around. Yeah, there absolutely are. Get your hockey fix. Uh and there’s always, you know, NHL Network will have old Stanley Cup clinching games and other things like that if if that’s your thing. Uh I I’ll always watch a couple of minutes of those uh every once in a while when I feel the need to watch some some hockey. So yeah, there are choices out there. It’s good to see and just think about it, you know, 20 30 years ago, it was just nothing. So not nice to have these options available, right? And I should mention that World Junior Summer Showcase is taking place in Minnesota as well. So guess Minnesota gets all the the fun. Yeah. Yeah. State of hockey. Yeah. Yeah. So, and it’s going to be at the University of Minnesota, but there should be a way to stream that as well if you want. And uh it should be a lot of fun. And they do sort of a a split squad for some of the earlier games. So, all the people invited to the camp you get to see at least once. So, so that’s a good thing. you know, before they cut down the rosters for the main uh part of the tournament. But that will do it for today’s show. Thanks so much for listening. Gil, you will be back on Monday to talk to some hosts from around the lockdown NHL channel to see what’s going on with their teams. Of course, we will be back next Friday to talk about the week that was in the NHL. We’ll hopefully talk about some schedule stuff that um we will look forward to getting next week. And uh in the meantime, have a great weekend everybody.

The NHL enters full offseason mode but there’s still plenty to talk about. It appears the league will vote to once again have a decentralized NHL Draft in 2026 despite the feeling that so much was missing from the event this season. We discuss why and what the league can do to make the event better for fans both in person and watching the even on television.

Plus, the NHL schedule is still not released and we are two weeks behind last year’s schedule release. We discuss the reason for the delay, how it affects the teams and the fans and what happens next.

And if we have your summer hockey fix, from Da |Beauty League to a Russian exhibition of KHL vs NHL players and the World Juniors Summer Showcase. We break all that down and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Rachel Donner and Gil Martin.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LONHL?sid=YouTube

Locked On NHL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNHL

Follow Locked On NHL on Social
Twitter https://bit.ly/3hXyu5w
Facebook https://bit.ly/3BubZNc

#NHL #Hockey

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!

Gametime
Today’s episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.
Monarch Money
Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.
FanDuel
Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in Bonus Bets if your first $5 bet wins!

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)