Was thinking about this recently. Do you feel it would be beneficial to abolish the draft.

I have 2 main concerns with the draft:

1. We seem to be wasting the best years of many top talents on a ****ty team. Eichel on Buffalo, McDavid on Edmonton, Jones in Nashville then Columbus now Chicago, Bedard on Chicago, etc.
2. There is no incentive for ****ty teams like Arizona to improve. They play in their college arena with no fans and no consequences cause they'll just pick high and get good players and get their payment from Toronto/NY at the end of the year to keep them afloat. Players are essentially forced to waste 9 years of their life there until they become UFAs.

So how can we fix this?

I'm proposing a hybrid draft. So you'd have a "Primary Draft" and a "Secondary Draft"

The primary draft would be Day 1 of the draft. The week before, NHL teams could meet with prospects and pitch their team to them. To "pick" a player in the primary draft, you'd need to sign them to an ELC before Day 1 of the draft. Also, the first player you sign in the primary draft costs you your own 1st round pick that year, and the 2nd player costs you your 2nd round pick, if you want to sign more than 2, then you need to acquire another team's 1st round pick.

So the first day of the draft, the "Primary" draft would consist of each team announcing its signings. If every team used both its picks to sign players in the "primary" draft then essentially the 1st and 2nd rounds would be players choosing their teams instead of teams choosing the players.

The second day of the draft would be what we currently have but minus any picks used in the "primary draft" so if every team signed two players except for Arizona who signed zero in the primary draft then every team would have used their 1st and 2nd round picks so the draft would be Arizona's 1st, Arizona's 2nd then the 3rd round starts.

Why this format?

The dual format keeps some level of balance between all the franchises. Toronto can't just get the rights to every Toronto born player every year. They can only get 2 and then if they want more they need to acquire 1sts.

If a team struggles in the Primary draft they get priority in the secondary draft to provide some balance.

The fact that you NEED to sign players to ELCs is also a big factor cause teams have a max 50 contracts so you can't just accumulate the rights to loads of prospects, each prospect you sign is one less AHL/NHL player so you need to be careful about using those contract slots on an 18 year old who will take it up for the next 3-5 years.

What could be the result?

The idea that top picks automatically "fix" teams is absurd. Edmonton picked in the top 5 every year for like 7/8 years and it still took 10 years to make the playoffs. Buffalo constantly has top 10 picks and struggles to make the playoffs. The truth is that these organizations are fundamentally flawed in their decision making and that high draft picks just help them cover those flaws.

The hope is that this system would force teams to actually fix what makes them unattractive since they now need to attract all top talent.

Another thing that should benefit is investment in youth hockey and retention of franchise icons. Arizona is a great example of this. They had massive investment in youth hockey 10-15 years ago and that led to players like Knies and Matthews who are now in Toronto. Arizona has now drastically cut back its funding for youth hockey. If this system existed both those guys could be in Arizona, they would be fan favourites and idols for the young players who could go watch them every week. This would encourage more young people to play hockey, encourage Arizona to invest in minor hockey and build a strong system. The truth is they invested all this money just to see its top players go to Toronto. It might seem "fair" when that happens to Toronto born players but places like Arizona (Matthews), Winnipeg (Toews), can't afford to keep losing their homegrown talent cause it kills their local ecosystems.

Another type of investment that should change would be investment in foreign markets. Imagine the Edmonton Oilers are struggling to attract players, they could invest heavily in Germany's youth hockey system with Draisaitl at the front of that campaign and try to attract all the future top German players (like Stutzle) to build their team around. We could see other teams like Columbus do this in Austria (Reinbacher) or LA in Slovakia (Kopitar) and actually start to grow the game around the world and have a real economic incentive to do so instead of just random foreign games the NHL puts on. This has worked really well in Soccer and Baseball where MLB teams have programs in Cuba, Dominican, Japan and more.. In Soccer, European teams have academies in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, etc to train and develop talent to come to the European leagues when they get older.

Last change

The last change I'd make if the league adopted this would be to lower the UFA age from 27 to 24 so that the advantage of signing top prospects is a bit less and players can move more.

Just Imagine

If Bedard has been able to choose to play with his idol in Crosby this year and help him win 1 more cup then be the core of the Penguins rebuilt.
OR
If Bedard had been able to choose to play with his idol Matthews and fix Toronto's 3rd line center hole and help break a 50+ year cup drought.

Maybe Michkov decides not to resign in the KHL if he knew he could choose to play with Ovi this year.

How different is the situation in Arizona if Matthews signs there to pay with Doan? Arizona was 9th in the West the year before Matthews debut. Does he turn them into a playoff team? He took Toronto from last to a playoff team (with help)? Does he help attract other players to Arizona to play with him?

I know that this is a crazy idea but the more you think about it the more sense I think it makes.

You’re fundamentally making the big market teams too overpowered because almost none of the prospects are going to choose the small markets unless they live near or in a small nhl market

In the aftermath there will be like 10-15 teams left in the league because teams like New Jersey and Winnipeg won’t be able to compete for players

And there’s a reason trades exist as it allows players who are being wasted to have a chance to win on contenders

The idea makes no sense, you want the bottom teams to get top picks so they get better, this league thrives on the idea of parity, this abolishes that parity

you were probably thinking about this recently because this is essentially an extension of a bad idea by rachel doerrie

there's a number of reasons why the nhl shouldn't abolish the draft; and it's not just because teams in larger markets would benefit from the higher end prospects.

nhl teams don't develop junior players; you've brought up soccer (football), but you didn't mention that most football clubs operate as whats essentially an NHL, AHL and CHL team. young players are developed internally and if there is interest from another club, they get sold and the club will get compensation. european teams don't have "academies in canada and brazil", young players are bought by them and brought over the europe for ever increasing transfer fees, and this is never in the benefit of the home countries. brazils football system is an absolute mess right now if you took the time to look into it.

instead of nhl teams spending money and resources on developing prospects below 18, the draft instead allows these prospects to get a foot in the door to the nhl and provide some semblance of parity at the ground level for team building. you can't "fix" an nhl team by getting a bunch of high picks over and over again, the real strategy is from having a proper amateur scouting department and a clear focus by the general manager to identify the most suitable prospects for the system. the draft lottery is implemented to make sure that there is some sort of counter to the nhl team attempting to bottom out and gun it for the best guy in the draft class. it's not a perfect system but it makes sense for the league, and it's why all north american sports leagues have a draft.

also, your suggestion would just lead to more contract tampering. hockey players are 18 are very dumb and easily impressionable, especially since at that age they're going to be more around their parents and agent then they are when they hit ufa at 26-28.

This

As lets say we went with the other idea

Every big contender would be getting the legit prospects leaving the bottom feeders with scraps

Pitch you can play with McDavid, Matthews, or the guys who just won the cup bam

RIP Chicago, RIP anyone else who was just bad

It would make the strong teams stronger and the weak teams weaker.

No more need to tank for the #1 OA just can wue him over lul

This would basically become how to shutdown NHL ASAP

I get the criticism but they lack some real context.

When talking about soccer and Brazil. I'll fully acknowledge that the Brazil system is broken but it's broken to the benefit of European soccer leagues.

I honestly don't care if the Germany youth hockey system is broken if the problem is that the oilers are funding it and own it and take every top German players. Especially if that means we get a Draisaitl or Stuztle every 3 years instead of every 10.

The comment on it hurting small teams in wrong in practice. If you look at European football the open system actually hurts the big teams way more. Yes they get Messi/Ronaldo/TAA/Foden etc. But 90% of top players choose NOT to sign with big clubs at a young age cause the path to the Premier League or whatever top league is harder. Maybe Bedard would pick Toronto or Pittsburgh to play with Crosby or Matthews but would Fantilli?

Fantilli has much more incentive to pick the Islanders for example where he could instantly make the team and be a core piece in 1-2 years filling a need they have. Then with the UFA age at 24 he can be at his max potential at that age. If he goes to a team with a strong C core then he likely is losing millions cause he won't get to hit his potential as early.

I know it flies in the face of Gary Betman's parity league but it would allow teams to be very strategic in how they pitch their teams and build them. It would also eliminate all tanking by removing any incentive and get teams to build an attractive product for fans.

What the big teams will do is stockpile on high level prospects, send them to the minors for a bit and if they lose a core member or feel their current core has run it’s course, they’ll just call up said prospects to replace the old core, and since there’s no limit to how many you can pick up in one window they’ll just snatch all the best ones and leave the small markets with the table scraps and this cycle will continue until the league realizes that their system is broken and brings back the draft

You clearly didn't read what I wrote.

You never said there was a limit

I did lol. Reread it.

Yep as adaptation will lead to nothing

Big teams like Toronto, Edmonton, Vegas, etc just got to say to whoevers the best want to play with the cup champs or Matthews/McDavid

Kids gonna go **** yea so long whoever would have been 1OA lul

Just not true.

Let's say you ended up with McDavid, Matthews, Bedard. Why would any center in the next 10 years choose to go to that team? You are a potential 1OA pick who could score 100 points a year and you are gonna play 4C just so you can " go **** yea" I got to play with those guys.

Like that decision will cost that player $50M+ vs going to another team where they will develop be a #1C and put up 100 points before becoming a UFA.

We have the evidence for this already when you look at sports without a draft in other countries.

There congregation of talent doesn't happen at 18/19/20 it happens at 24/25/26 so the teams that focus on development actually are most attractive to young players.

Again that problem of aggregation later in their career is solved by the salary cap. If Matthews/McDavid/Bedard all wanted to play with each other they would also need to take patcuts.

It is your just not seeing it

The draft is there for a reason to reward the bottom feeders and to prevent the strong from getting OP

All Toronto would have to say to Bedard or any prospect is want to play with Matthews same with Edmonton with McDavid.

Its not hard to sell that to a young player. Bedard would get to play on the best C's wing and not have to worry about anything but shooting on net and scoring goals. Why stress myself off on a bad team when I can get lots of points with this team next to this guy

Using other sports to justify is silly

Basketball has drafting
Baseball has drafting
Football has drafting

The system is fine switching things would only benefit the contenders

A lot of what you're saying is fairly ignorant to how most football clubs and leagues operate compared to how the NHL operates.

A lot of Brazilians are actually not happy about European teams taking all their young promising players for cheap to be re-sold off a higher values. There's a reason why the major clubs have been trying to get their TV rights in order and structure their league to retain national players.

Second point, a privately run foreign company having a monopoly and ownership on a countries athletic development is... a very, very bad idea. Imagine if a Chinese basketball team decided to buy out and operate every under 18 development centre in Canada, for the sole purpose of cherrypicking the best players to play in their league?

The third point ignores the magnitude in difference between viable football clubs and the NHL. Just counting the top four European leagues, there are 78 clubs. That's already more than double the number of teams in the NHL. Also, loans exist. Someone comparable to Fantilli could easily sign with a club like Liverpool or Arsenal and be loaned out to a smaller one like Crystal Palace or Leverkusen for a season. I don't think you completely understand the differences between how the Premier League runs (teams develop their own players, relegation, transfers, homegrown players, etc) and how the NHL runs, especially considering how top heavy the Premier League is.

There are serious fundamental issues with what you're suggesting. The draft isn't broken and abolishing it or changing it to the convoluted method you have would have serious ramifications on the league, and personally I think most of them are negative.

If anything the one change you could argue is do the lottery the day of the draft. That could really spice things up as nobody will know whose getting 1OA till the day of the draft

No need to abolish it lul

Well unless your a team who would heavily benefit and even then its not right

It’s hard to get past the “Eichel wasted on Buffalo” comment without viewing this as an impartial way to tip the scales against small market teams.

The draft works. If anything, the NHL should make it more of a ‘show’ to promote the league and top incoming talent.

One random idea I’ve seen that could be flushed out would be a bidding system whereby teams could “bid” more than a single pick on a player…not sure the details on how it all works…but sounded like an interesting spin. Maybe it turns draft into game show…but interesting path to allow teams to act in their convictions.

I think one area that really needs to be addressed (and is rarely talked about) is the central scouting influence on the draft process. I understand the league’s interest in eliminating information asymmetry…but if teams want to invest in their own scouting and research, they should be allowed to do so. In retrospect, did Chayka’s punishment really fit the crime? Teams should be free to create advantage through scouting, research, draft.