The 2020 NHL Draft may somehow still take place in June

Even without the completion of the regular season, the NHL has had discussions about still going ahead with the 2020 NHL Draft in June.

Though the 2019-20 NHL season remains on pause and in question as to whether or not it will even continue, the league is looking for options on how to proceed with the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. On Tuesday, TSN Insider Pierre Lebrun reported that one of the options is to still hold the draft in June, before the potential season resuming. The draft would be obviously be virtual if this were to take place.

There are obviously a plethora of issues that would come as a result of going ahead with the draft before the end of the season, most notably that the draft order wouldn’t be set yet. While the regular season is most likely over, the playoffs would still have to take place in order to finalize draft positioning. If not, a team could go on to win the Stanley Cup or come close while having a higher draft pick than teams that finished behind them.

There also couldn’t be any trades since the NHL is currently in an indefinite roster freeze, taking away one of the more entertaining aspects of the draft. But also taking away a team’s ability to trade up/down based on how the draft has gone would handicap several teams into making picks they otherwise wouldn’t make, and no general manager would ever agree to take part.

There’s also the matter of conditional draft picks, especially the ones that hinge on the postseason. Would those just be marked as not met if the season is cancelled? For example, New Jersey gets Vancouver’s first round pick if the Canucks makes the playoffs, and while they are in right now based on points percentage, they’re out based on points.

When will the 2020 NHL Draft take place?

Even if the draft and playoff format are figured out, some picks still rely on how far a team advances in the playoffs. For example, if the Washington Capitals win the Stanley Cup, the San Jose Sharks would receive a 2020 third-round pick. However if the draft had already taken place, the Sharks wouldn’t get the pick since the pick was already used.

As for the draft lottery, that would probably be the easiest part to figure out, but it would have to align with what the potential playoff format would look like if the season continues. If the playoffs are just determined by point percentage, then the draft lottery would need to be structured the same way. If the NHL does something with teams currently outside the playoffs getting a chance to make it in, then the draft lottery would have take them out of the equation in order to avoid having a playoff team with a top three pick.

There just seems like way too many hoops to jump through in order to make a June draft work for the NHL. Of course, if the season has been cancelled by late June then there’s really no point in delaying the draft if it can be done virtually in order to prepare for next season. If not however, then there really is just seemingly no point in trying to force it to get done as soon as possible. Whenever the offseason officially begins  for the NHL, whether it be in June or September, is when the draft should take place.

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