How the NHL Draft Works and How It Has Evolved

The NHL draft is where teams build their future. Either you’re good at it, like the Washington Capitals, and you reap the rewards, or you’re bad at it, like teams who shall remain nameless, and you find yourself trying to solve problems with free agent band-aids — or hockey trades where you hold none of the leverage.

As streamlined as the draft tables look — with their landlines, fancy suits, and fresh faces — it wasn’t always this way. The draft used to be privately held at the Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal. In 1972, the NHL shared the draft tables with a different league like some sort of Mountain Dew-sponsored, pro-wrestling crossover. In 1980, the NHL draft would finally be open to…