Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - This year will be the first other than two years during the COVID-19 pandemic that the NHL Draft will not be held at a central location.
This year's draft eligible players will be in Los Angeles, but teams and their scouts are staying home. The NHL went out with a bang last year, holding the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas at Sphere.
With larger facilities available, the Buffalo Sabres will set up their draft headquarters at the Buffalo Bills' facilities in Orchard Park.
The Bills have a state-of-the-art draft room, and they offered it to general manager Kevyn Adams and the Sabres to set up shop for the 2025 NHL Draft on June 27 and 28.
"There’s a strong relationship between both staffs, which has made the process seamless. And we are grateful to be able to take advantage of an environment that’s been tested and proven on a large scale," said Bills and Sabres COO Pete Guelli in a team statement. "Utilizing the Bills' draft room will also allow us to see what works best and what we can implement to enhance our capabilities even more for future drafts."
The Sabres say they’ll have around 40 people in the draft room at One Bills Drive, including Adams and his front office staff, the NHL and AHL coaching staffs, as well as the analytics, scouting and development staffs.
"The Bills have years of experience with this style of draft, and once Brandon [Beane] offered for us to use their facility, it was a no-brainer to utilize their space and existing infrastructure," said Adams in a team statement.
"The Bills have optimized and refined their space for years, and their setup offers everything we need – from expansive room for our hockey operations staff to the technology that will allow for streamlined communication."
So what’s in this room that makes it attractive for the Sabres to come use it?
It has four 85-inch monitors and four 75-inch monitors that they’ll use to help everyone see certain information. Each department can get information out to the group using these monitors.
The room also has a whiteboard that takes up one wall. The team will have every prospect on magnets, making up the Sabres' draft board.
"This room gives us a lot bigger visuals to see all the tools and the resources that we use, from our scouting systems to our analytics systems," said Kyle Kiebzak, Sabres manager of hockey technologies and team operations.
Many general managers in the NHL didn’t like having to pack all their information and staff, and move it all to whatever city the draft was in.
Owners like Terry Pegula were also ecstatic with the change, because they save quite a bit in travel costs.