Leave it to the NHL to make a good draft look awful, but the OHL shows well

[upbeat music] Dan, I acknowledge that as I bring up this first issue to discuss this week, that I've become a really junior hockey junkie over these last couple of decades.

I pay far more attention to the Ontario Hockey League than I do the National Hockey League, although I love watching players progress out of the league that we cover and move on to the professional ranks.

But I'm thinking of the NHL draft that just happened, and we'll get more into the, the details of the players and things that we thought about the players that graduate now to NHL teams, at least as prospects.

Uh, but watching the OHL draft a couple of weeks ago, and we talked about this o- on the pod, I absolutely loved the production.

I loved the live draft being back.

I really enjoyed watching the entire process play out.

And I, I don't even know, like, we don't get a lot of time to follow the U16s, so these are players that, that we really don't know much about, but they're coming into the league that we like so much.

Compare that to the NHL draft, and I think I would be super excited to watch these players that we have seen with our own eyes develop, and we're thinking where might they go in the draft, and I, I would think I'd be super excited about that.

But I, I missed the early part of the NHL draft this past weekend.

I was out on Friday night for a bit, got back around pick 20, and by, like, pick 23 or 24, I, I couldn't stomach it anymore, Dan.

This production, I, I j- Here, here's my question for you, Dan Mahar.

Why does the NHL hate us?

[laughs]

Why? It was awful.

[laughs] I had, I had a very similar-- And, and you're a Leaf fan, and they were picking first overall, so you would've thought this would be a momentous, uh, event for you.

But no, I, I've said this for years, like, finding that balance between making it an important event for the kids who are being picked that night and making it a TV event and keeping your sponsors happy and all that, and actually catering to your fans who wanna see the picks and go to sleep is a, is a tough balance.

But the NHL fails time and time again at it, do they not? Because we heard, uh, so we heard in spades after the 2025 draft, in spades about how it was, like, the worst version of the Oscars, right? Just dragged out way too much time, way too much banter, way too many pauses.

It dragged on till going on midnight, I believe.

And they heard that.

They heard that in spades.

Okay, well, here's your opportunity to demonstrate you heard the fans, you heard everyone, let's speed it up.

And here we are, 20 minutes into the night with speeches from Buffalo Bills, from Justin Bieber, you name it, before they ever get to a pick.

And I, and like you, I started watching the draft when it, the broadcast came on, and it was past 7:30 before we got to pick two.

That, to me, says we're not serious about the feedback we heard [chuckles] from fans.

Now, let's keep this thing moving.