The NHL announced the postponement of its yearly draft, awards, and scouting combine events on Wednesday due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The draft, originally set for June 26-27 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada, will be rescheduled at a different location with details to be revealed later, the league said.
The announcement came shortly after the NHL's chief medical officer warned during a conference call with reporters against resuming a normal schedule too hastily amid the uncertain timeframes presented by the pandemic, ESPN reported.
"From a medical perspective, I think we'd have to understand what the risks are for the different groups," Dr. Willem Meeuwisse said, according to ESPN. "What are the risks to the players? What are the risks to the staff that would be required to run an event? And what are the risks to the fans?
"Once we know what those things are, I think we can make a more intelligent decision."
Canadiens Executive Vice President Margaret Belanger said she supported the move.
"While today's news is disappointing for fans of hockey in general and those here in Montreal in particular, this is the right decision to make under the circumstances."
The scouting combine, the annual prelude to the draft where teams get a final chance to size up prospects, was scheduled for June 1-6 in Buffalo, NY. It too was called off indefinitely, though the league did not say whether it would be made up, or skipped altogether, ahead of the rescheduled draft.
The NHL Awards, an event honoring the regular-season's best, is held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. The league said it "looks forward to returning to Las Vegas in the future."
It’s obvious NFL teams want the draft pushed back. It’s also obvious the NFL isn’t going to push back the draft.
The G.M. subcommittee lobbied the NFL on Tuesday to postpone the draft. Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis spoke to Peter King about his desire for the same.
Broncos General Manager John Elway has become the latest to voice his opinion on the subject.
“Really, we feel pretty good about where we are,” Elway said in an interview with the team website. “We’d rather have it backed up, so we can get all our scouts and everybody in, but if it’s limited and we can stay there and they’re not going to move the draft, we’re in good shape. I think that one of the reasons why, with I think the coaches not going to the Combine and them spending the whole week here just on the college side, it’s put us way ahead there because we’ve got the coaches’ rankings already. The scouts are already working on next year a little bit to the 2021 summer manual, so we feel like we’re in pretty good shape. If it moves back, great. We’re ready for that. If it doesn’t move, then we’ll be ready for that, too.”
The NFL has made it pretty clear the draft will proceed as planned April 23-25 sans all public events. Instead, the league will turn it into a made-for-TV event.
A handful of teams, including the Broncos, didn’t send assistant coaches to the Combine. Based on what’s happened in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s likely given those teams a leg up in evaluating prospects.
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NHL Draft Has Been Postponed
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