The NHL has already black-listed our podcast, so let’s talk about how horrible the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft has been. It’s the first (and probably only) intentionally de-centralized Draft where the teams and their representation were not on-site for the Draft in Los Angeles. ESPN had the coverage for it and it was a sight to behold. Here’s some of my takeaways:

-Matthew Schaefer deserved better than ESPN constantly bringing up his mother’s death. While he is very open about it, for ESPN to bring it up like that and to focus on that when he was walking up, as he opened up with emotion, and as he was sitting there with Leah Hextall and her asking about it is way too much. He is such a strong person off-the-ice for what he had to deal with at such a young age…it’s not that hard to focus on his play that got him there rather than the tragedy he had to endure. 

-The guest pickers had some interesting choices among them. Shea Weber using an old flip phone to record the Predators choice, Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore filming 10 takes with different draftee’s names, the wonderful Bayley from the WWE towering over Gary Bettman, Jeremy Roenick being Jeremy Roenick, Charlie Conway and Connie Moreau, Nikki Glaser talking about Brett Hull’s drunkenness, George Kittel calling Filip Forsberg “Felix.” What a time. 

-The NHL “Draft House” was a dumb concept. Not only was it awkward to have the player thank the team for selecting them like it was a dystopian game show– but the technical difficulties with audio on both side, the interactions being so damn sloppy in moments that were usually private, and the lack of personal touch to it makes it just a terrible idea in concept and execution. Awful Announcing has a solid breakdown of it. The awkward small talk was just cringe inducing. It’s the anti-arbitration hearing theme with the team building him up before they break them down.

-The post-drafted couch questions from Leah Hextall were…not great…again. It was just so unnecessary I understand they were meant to be quirky and fun, but they come off more awkward than the Draft House. 

-Gary Bettman using the stage in what looked like a TEDTalk was fantastic. Animated Bettman is the best, especially in his waning years as commissioner. He’s just very loose, playing into the heel role with fans and winning them over after all the boos. 

-The trade button is the best thing to happen to the NHL. 

-Could ESPN not finance an analyst who really follows junior and/or college hockey?? John Buccigross does his best on the college hockey side, but there’s no looking at these players outside of the stats that are read and the video that other people have cut up for them. It’s less about what the players can bring and more toward what the team could have. They could have done so much better with one person with the specific knowledge of the prospects. 

-The first round was over four hours. That’s just horrid, decentralized or not. I think with de-centralized, it doesn’t help move things along much better– especially with all the stuff around it. Now, I don’t know if in-person would’ve moved it along faster when you think of all the stuff that goes on before, during, and after the picks are made. There’s got to be a better way to do things to make it go faster and make it more appetizing on TV. 

While this whole event is about the kids getting drafted, and I’m sure it still was for them, the way it was presented by ESPN made it worse than it needed to be. It was clunky, it was very awkward, and overall not a great look for the Worldwide Leader when you break it down. Luckily for the draftees, they couldn’t give a good goddamn about it because they just realized their childhood dreams in one night.