If this was the last live NHL Draft before the league decentralizes the event, it went out
with a bang! Boy oh boy did the NHL and Las Vegas ever put on a fabulous show.
The Draft is usually held in an NHL arena, but rather than hosting the NHL Draft inside
the Vegas Golden Knights NHL facility the T-Mobile Arena, the Sphere played host and
it was unlike any draft before.

On top of the awe that the sphere, the NHL added to the performance by having a draft
picks announced by former first-round picks such as Connor Bedard and Joe Thornton,
celebrities like Celine Dion and Michael Buffer.

But glitz and glamour aside the steak was just as good as the sizzle as the picks started
rolling in.

The San Jose Sharks set the ball in motion by selecting the player we all knew they
would in Boston University star Macklin Celebrini. It was not as sure that the Chicago
Blackhawks would pick NCAA freshman sensation Artyom Levshunov at second overall,
but that was their pick.

The draft really got interesting with the Anaheim Ducks when they selected the player
that was Elite Prospects 15 th ranked consensus player in Beckett Sennecke of the
Oshawa Generals. One of the funnier moments was seeing the reaction on his face as
his name was announced, one of utter shock and disbelief, and if you read his lips, it
was one of the better reactions in draft history.

Many outlets had Russian winger Ivan Demidov ranked as the second prospect in the
Draft, but he was unselected until the Montreal Canadiens made their first selection at
fifth overall. The “Russian Factor” may or may not be a real influence depending on who
you ask, but one thing is for sure; Montreal Canadian fans are ecstatic with the selection
after being disappointed in the team’s selection of David Reinbacher the year prior.
A big question heading into the draft was if Jarome Iginlas’s son Tij Iginla was available at
the Calgary Flames pick at nine, would the Flames select him? Well, the Utah HC made
Iginla their selection at sixth overall. His dad Jarome is a Hall of Fame player who was
selected 11th overall. I am sure Tij is enjoying bragging rights over his old man by being
a higher selection.

Utah General Manager Bill Armstrong said in his press conference that he told Tij Iginla
“We have a lot of 20-goal scorers. We need a 50-goal scorer.”

One of the strengths of this Draft class is the quality of defense. It was no surprise that
six of the top 12 players selected were on defense. What was a surprise was that the
The 2nd defender  was Carter Yakemchuk to the Ottawa Senators at 7th overall ahead of

CHL Defender of the Year Zayne Parekh who went ninth to the Calgary

Flames, Anton Silayev who went next to the New Jersey Devils, Sam Dickinson, the
11th pick by the San Jose Sharks, and Zeev Buium, 12th to the Minnesota Wild.
The Philadelphia Flyers are responsible for one of the Drafts’ more memorable moments
when they had celebrity announcer Michael Buffer announce Jett Luchanko at pick 13.
The Detroit Red Wings made Michael Brandsegg-Nygard the first-ever Norwegian player
drafted in the first round with pick 15. MBN was the only Norwegian in NHL history to be
a first-round pick for exactly eight picks until he was joined by Stian Solberg when he
was selected 23rd overall by the Anaheim Ducks.

The first round concluded with the Edmonton Oilers trading into the 32nd pick and
selecting Sam O’Reilly from the London Knights.

Next year the NHL General Managers voted 31-1 in favour of decentralizing the Draft,
meaning the NHL teams will stay in their own city and send in the selection remotely.
There may still be a live Draft in a host city where the players will meet Gary Bettman on
stage and run the media gauntlet in front of a live crowd, but it would have to match
the production value and panache we witnessed at the Sphere in Las Vegas.