How New App Will Keep Fans Up To Date As Draft Goes Remote

The 2025 NHL Draft takes place this Friday and Saturday, June 27-28. And while most of the top prospects, commissioner Gary Bettman and other key stakeholders will be gathered at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles when the proceedings kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Friday on ESPN, ESPN+, Sportsnet and TVA, the 32 clubs building their rosters will make selections remotely, from their home markets.

With the league shifting to a decentralized format at the clubs’ request in 2025, a key piece of technology will be more important than ever. With additional functionality built in this year, the NHL Draft App will keep everyone up to date in real time on draft picks, trades and other key information.

Developed by Presidio, the NHL’s official technology innovation partner, the app was first introduced at the 2023 Draft, when the company’s partnership with the league was also officially launched.

The development process began a year earlier, when the NHL returned to an in-person format in 2022 after two years of virtual events to accommodate pandemic restrictions.

“I go back to Montreal, and I remember our team flying in and saying, ‘Okay, we just want to observe,’” said Andres de Corral, Presidio’s vice president of digital services. “The league was so open to us sitting with Central Registry, sitting with the clubs and the production teams, which we didn’t realize were such a big part of having a successful draft and really understanding the workflow.”

When the app went live in Nashville in 2023, the teams, broadcast partners, event staff including the commissioner at the podium onstage and the league’s Central Registry and Central Scouting representatives were all able to access all the information that they needed — clearly, and in real time.

Additional features helped power the spectacle of the league’s 2024 Draft, an impressive spectacle at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

“The first year was more like core functionality,” said Carol Dann, the NHL’s vice president of delivery management. “Make sure that the team had access to the player that they want to pick, find the player easily, be able to submit it, and then have the information get out to our vendors in a timely way. The second year, we focused a lot on our information delivery to our outside vendors.”

That meant disseminating the pertinent information got to the right people more quickly and efficiently as the draft process unfolded.

In 2025, the NHL Draft App will be a key tool, using digital communication to replace the on-site interactions that teams are accustomed to seeing on the draft floor. The app will enable instant, error-free announcements of draft picks and, new this year, enable clubs to make trades within the app.

Until 2024, trades were processed manually — written by hand, on paper, using carbon paper to make copies in triplicate.

“I’ve been with the league for over 25 years, so I’ve been to a lot of drafts,” said Dann, who sits with Central Registry near the podium and has been helping to oversee all the draft paperwork. “It never struck me as hard as it did last year. ‘Why are we still pushing paper around? This is crazy.’ We’re tearing the papers apart and we’re putting it in one pile, putting in another pile, checking this and checking that. At that point, 2024, what are we doing? So it was a really great step up to an already sophisticated application.”

NHL GMs are known to be creatures of habit. So even though they’re not together physically, the seeds for any trades this weekend will most likely be sown by phone, text or email.

Once the pieces of a deal are in place, one general manager will initiate the trade by notifying the app, which will instantly notify Central Registry as well as the other team that’s involved. Once the second team accepts the deal, the trade is finalized, much like in fantasy hockey. On this high-stakes stage, the NHL Draft App process will also protect trade leaks before deals are finalized, protecting the integrity of transactions.

Teams have gone through training sessions to ensure that they’re comfortable with the new functionality and have been encouraged to use the app to make their trades. If they choose, they are still welcome to reach out to Central Registry for further direction.

With the wide scope of activity that takes place at the draft during a relatively short period of time, the NHL Draft App will be a key tool in keeping things running smoothly, especially in the new decentralized format.

“It’s almost impossible to explain until you’ve actually been there to see it, so it’s a pretty amazing feat,” said David Lehanski, the NHL’s executive VP of business development & innovation. “I would just say it’s a continuation of the success we’ve been having with Presidio.”

Presidio also had a hand in helping develop the NHL Watch Comms App, which debuted on the wrists of the league’s officials earlier this year.

After the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft unfolds on Friday, rounds two through seven will take place on Saturday starting at noon ET. Fans can watch Day 2 on NHL Network, ESPN+, Sportsnet and Sportsnet 1.