Daly: 2020 draft won't look, feel the same regardless of when it's held
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The dates for when the NHL might host its 2020 draft are undetermined, but deputy commissioner Bill Daly informed all teams in a memo that regardless of what's settled upon, it's going to be unfamiliar.
"... The fact of the matter is that whenever we hold the 2020 draft - in early June or shoehorned' into a short window in October or November - (it) is not going to be a typical NHL draft," Daly said, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.
"It is not going to look the same; it is not going to feel the same; and it is not going to be the same," he continued. "While we may know more about next year's landscape in terms of CBA, salary cap, escrow, etc., in November than we will in June, we are still not going to know everything, and there is still going to be a multitude of questions that have no answers.
"So, any comparison of the 2020 NHL draft to a typical year's draft is not - and cannot be - an apples to apples' comparison."
Daly sent the memo to outline why the league prefers to host the draft in June - before the end of the 2019-20 season, if a return to the ice happens at all - rather than waiting until a champion is crowned, which this year could be deep into the fall.
If the draft occurs in June, the NHL has put together multiple ideas to make it fair with the uncompleted seasons, and right now the draft order is unclear.
Among the league's proposed scenarios are using points percentage to determine the draft order, picking only one winner through the lottery system with a maximum move-up of four spots, and giving teams that have traded conditional first-round picks seven days to work out a new solution, according to Friedman.
Another reason the league prefers to hold the event sooner than later is the success of the recent NFL draft, which was held virtually but still drew record numbers of viewers. However, for the NHL to follow a similar format, it will need at least a month of planning, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.
A decision on the draft is expected next week, Friedman adds.
The 2020 draft was originally slated for Montreal on June 26-27, but it was postponed in March due to COVID-19.
On Thursday, Steve Yzerman, the general manager of the last-place Detroit Red Wings, said he's yet to hear a good reason for why the draft should be held early.
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