NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandemic Era

NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandemic Era All the teams will be at home; prospects will be largely onsite at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater By Mark J Burns, SVG Contributor

Friday, June 27, 2025 - 11:36 am

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For the first time in a world not restricted by pandemic, the NHL will offer a decentralized format for the 2025 Draft, which begins tonight at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater. In other words, the NHL's ultimate business meeting, as NHL President, Content and Events, Steve Mayer describes it, will feature draftees speaking virtually with their new teams following their selection.

(Image: NHL)

We have essentially developed and created a made-for-TV event, says Mayer, who is executive-producing this year's event.

Round 1 begins tonight at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+ in the U.S. and on Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada. Rounds 2-7 on Saturday will be live on NHL Network, ESPN+, Sportsnet, and SN1 beginning at 12 p.m.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the broadcast will be the widespread use of LED screens and graphics, similar in some ways to what the league created for the 2024 NHL Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas. I think, he says, we learned a lot from Sphere last year of how graphics and the look can drive a television program even greater.

Typically, all 32 NHL franchises, along with their coaches and scouts, hockey operations staff, and executives would sit on the NHL Draft floor and meet the draftees on stage following their selection. This year, teams will be located in their respective home markets, with only Commissioner Gary Bettman on hand at the Peacock Theater along with dozens of prospects and some guest pickers. Teams are also sending a public-relations representative and a technical-operations staffer to assist with the virtual process.

A New Way To Meet the Team Here's how it works. A celebrity, team alumnus, or current player will make a team's selection, with a majority of the prospects onsite in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, after being selected, a player will receive his jersey and take photos before proceeding to a room to meet his new team and its representatives in a virtual environment. Players will essentially see the team in its NHL Draft war room. A reporter onsite with the team will help drive the conversation.

It's going to be unique, Mayer says. I don't think it has been done before. It certainly will be, in my opinion, a signature of our Draft. Technically, he adds, it's a bear. It's very ambitious.

Approximately 90 camera feeds will be coming in from throughout North America. There are two cameras in every NHL Draft war room, along with cameras at Draft parties. Some prospects will be virtually conferenced into the Draft, and some guest pickers will be remote as well.

Draftees will also be interviewed by NHL media partners ESPN, Sportsnet, and TVA Sports before heading into a room for virtual press conferences with media in their new home cities. As Mayer points out, the NHL has to coordinate 32 of these remote meetings.

This is on steroids, he says, noting that hundreds of personnel are needed to stage this year's Draft. You're doing 32 of these rooms, all the cameras, coordinating everything. Then, you also have the unpredictability of the Draft. We have to be ready for any situation to happen.

Lessons From the Pandemic Having held two virtual Drafts during the COVID-19 pandemic, NHL executives, special-events staff, and other personnel brought those experiences and learnings to the 2025 edition, according to Mayer. The NHL is once again working with BitFire Networks, which played an integral technical role in productions of the pandemic-era Drafts.

Noting the different nature of the entire process, he says, We're hoping that we can give the prospects a unique experience and one that they'll always remember.

To provide feeds to and from the team locations, NHL Technical Operations and NHL Entertainment assembled teams of experts.

Sportsnet is handling the broadcast world feed - from the time viewers hear the Draft pick through the virtual-interview room, according to Mayer. That part of the broadcast will be consistent across the league's media partners airing the Draft. Each media partner can customize its broadcast from the time a team is on the clock for its selection until its selection is submitted.

An Abundance of Cameras At the Peacock Theater, there are multiple host-location cameras. Sportsnet will have two handheld cameras plus a mini jib; ESPN, four handhelds; and TVA Sports, two handhelds. NHL Network will have two handheld cameras for pre/post-selection coverage but only on Friday.

The broadcast camera complement will comprise five hards, four handhelds, three Q-ball robotic POVs, two RF handhelds, two Steadicams, one aerial cabled camera, and one beauty handheld camera.

In addition, the league's media partners will have multiple interview and talent locations. Sportsnet, ESPN, and TVA Sports will be situated on the stage, with Sportsnet also locating a reporter on the floor to the left of the stage. NHL Network will have one reporter located to the right of the stage for pre/post coverage.

Key league personnel for the NHL Draft spans several departments: events and entertainment, technical operations, central registry, central scouting, broadcast, and communications/public relations.

All NHL teams will be represented by their social/digital crew, along with NHL social-media shooters. Toronto-based live-events company BaAM built the set for the NHL Draft. Gravity is working with the NHL on graphics.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/06/27/nhl-draft-2025-the-league-is-pr...
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