The 2025 NHL Draft kicked off on Friday night as the league debuted a new viewing format.
Instead of having teams all in the same place as they’ve done in the past, the NHL decentralized the draft, with the prospects in Los Angeles and the teams virtually joining from their home cities. The format was more similar to the NFL and NBA drafts, where teams pick the players from their own facilities instead of traveling to the draft location.
In 2020 and 2021, the NHL draft was decentralized and conducted over video due to COVID before the league returned to in-person in 2022. However, teams liked the decentralized version enough that they approved this year’s draft to be conducted that way.
The NHL did try to make it unique experience by having the players speak with their new teams for the first time via video. However, it didn’t go over well with fans, who found the new format to be more distracting than entertaining.
Here’s. a look at how fans reacted to the draft online.
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NHL Draft format reactions
After the Islanders took Matthew Schaefer first overall, the defenseman spoke to his new team for the first time over Zoom in what was an incredibly emotional moment. It was also a reveal of how the rest of the night would go, with the prospects speaking with their new teams remotely in the “Draft House,” in front of the whole world.
A very emotional Matthew Schaefer after putting on the Isles jersey for the first time 💙🧡 pic.twitter.com/p7rsWXQ2KO
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 27, 2025
That led to social media reactions, with many people expressing their displeasure with the new format, while others made jokes.
Picks entering the NHL “Draft House” to meet their team pic.twitter.com/btACfFyyiF
— Petrov McGuire (@McguirePetrov) June 27, 2025
I cannot stress enough how terrible this draft format is. Like painfully bad. How the NHL can continue to overthink things every single event is beyond me.
— Canadian Pens Fan (@CanadianPens) June 27, 2025
Screw this decentralized NHL draft format, I want people screenshotting GMs looking vaguely in the direction of another team a table over from them and then everyone online debating if a trade is about to go down.
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) June 27, 2025
This NHL draft format will go down in history as something the NHL tried.
— Matt Porter (@mattyports) June 27, 2025
Honestly, I can’t stand this NHL Draft format. It feels so disconnected, impersonal, and awkward. Owners, GMs, and coaches should be right there in person with their draft picks to share the moment #NHLDraft
— Jason Kovacs (@jasonkovacs) June 27, 2025
This Draft format is perfect for the NHL bc it sucks
— Zachary Smith (@ZacharySmithPGH) June 27, 2025
This format isn’t working. It feels like the NHL misunderstood what makes the NFL Draft a made-for-TV event. You can watch the draft calls from GMs to 1st-round picks on any team’s IG or YouTube page within minutes, while the draft carries on without interruption. This isn’t it.
— Arun Srinivasan (@Arunthings) June 27, 2025
The league voted to approve a decentralized draft a few years ago after teams found the format to be successful during COVID. However, the NHL is likely to vote on having the draft return to the centralized format next year, making this a likely one-and-done situation.
“I’ve already heard a lot of people who voted for this saying ‘Well, maybe we should go back to that,'” commissioner Gary Bettman said. “At some point over the summer, we’ll poll the clubs again. We can go either way. We’re easy. It’ll really be the preference of the clubs.”
