Photo: Sporting News

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the 2020 NHL Draft will take place online after the league saw the success that the NFL had with the format last week.

He added that Bell Centre, where the draft was supposed to be held from June 26-27, in Montreal would host the event in 2021 or 2022.

The NHL Seattle franchise, which is scheduled to start playing in the 2021-22 season, was hoping to host it in 2021 to go along with the NHL Expansion Draft, which the NHL was reportedly considering. If the 2021 NHL Draft isn’t in Montreal, it will likely take place in Seattle and Montreal would get it in 2022.

“I thought the NFL and the technical staff for ESPN did a great job and I think the NHL noticed that. I think they also noticed the TV ratings were high and there has been talk about having the NHL Draft as early as June 5,” he said.

Freidman noted that the 31 General Managers think that it is too soon to hold the NHL Draft then and they want to do it when the final standings and 2020 Stanley Cup Playoff results are finalized.

“I would suspect that we will have an idea this week about which way the NHL decides to go but I do know [that] there are people in the league who would like to copy that and would like to do something similar. The hockey people are against it. We’ll see who wins out in this debate,” Freidman concluded with.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said on April 21 that holding the NHL Draft before the 2019-20 season resumes is a possibility.

The NHL is aiming to open mini-training camps on June 1 and resume the regular season sometime in June or July. They are also expected to have an update regarding the status of the draft soon.

You can watch the full interview below:

“This will be an online draft.” – @FriedgeHNIC | #NHLTonight pic.twitter.com/UGN0xJdK3o

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) April 29, 2020

By Harrison Brown