What’s the latest on the Draft Lottery and Draft, you ask?
Excellent question. After a careful review of the statements made by various hockey insiders and following lengthy conversations with my own contacts, I can confidently say that I have no damn idea.
An announcement is either going to be last week, this week or next week. The Draft might be in June and it also, interestingly enough, might not be in June. It could happen before the league wraps up the 2020 playoffs and also, it’s entirely possible it happens after the Stanley Cup is awarded.
Got it?
Clearly, nobody has any idea.
All the momentum that seemed to come out from Bill Daly’s eight-page memo/mission statement has been lost and replaced with a painstaking process of give and take between the league, the Owners and the Player’s Association.
Obviously this is something the league needs to get right and the logistics around it are incredibly complicated.
Gary Bettman has let it be known though- he’s not even considering a complete cancellation of the season at this point.
To their credit, the league tried to separate the lottery and the draft from the uncertainty and complication of a return to play but it just didn’t fly. Now it seems pretty clear that those other pieces will have to fall into place with some certainty before an approach to the draft can be selected.
And so…we wait.
We wait for later this week. We wait for next week. We wait for the details that have the potential to define the future of this franchise. No rush though.
Realistically, if the league still has any hope of hosting a Draft Lottery in June, they’re going to have to get the date locked in soon. And with the month of May slipping away, it seems like a guarantee we’ll hear something by next week.
I think.
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