NHL: My Concerns With Having A Virtual NHL Draft

Most recently, rumors have stated that the NHL draft could be done completely virtual. Here are my concerns.

As of right now, there’s no real end date on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the NHL. Things have gone from just wanting the NHL season to resume, to we might not have a finish to the 2019-20 season.

There have been rumors about the NHL draft being done completely virtual. I assume that would only be if hockey doesn’t return until the fall. If they bring back the season around early May, there wouldn’t be a need for this. If they cancel the entire season, we probably will see this format take place in June.

My concerns come down to the evil intentions of hackers. There will be people around the world trying to hack into the NHL draft and ruin it. Unless the NHL can figure out a way to get this done without any setbacks, I could see this being a thing.

How tech-savvy is the NHL? We’ll have to find out come draft day if they do it all virtual.

Other concerns come down to the players. What will happen if certain players cannot connect to the draft? I would assume they’d have the draft players video-call in when they’re picked. If they decide to scrap that idea, there would be less chance of it being hacked.

This is a very weird time for all hockey fans. If the Stanley Cup is award this season, it’ll be the first time in over 100 years where the season was canceled midway through the season, without awarding the Stanley Cup.

There’s a lot of unknowns surrounding the regular season, playoffs, and draft. What everyone does know right now is that we don’t have any hockey for at least the next month. Everything else will have to play out its own way.