2021 NHL Entry Draft date to remain unchanged

According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the National Hockey League will not being moving its 2021 Entry Draft, and it will remain in July on the 23rd and 24th.

Mostly all general managers across the league were hoping for the draft to be pushed back to possibly the fall. There was also a rumour circulating that some GM's were interested in holding the 2021 Draft in June 2022, a few days prior to the start of the 2022 Draft.

Late last week NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that the 2021 Draft will more than likely remain in July, which is now official.

«It's certainly an imperfect situation but we've been dealing with imperfect situations since at least March 12 of last year,» Daly said during last Thursday's press conference.

One big issue NHL teams are facing when preparing for the 2021 Draft is that scouts have been, for the most part, unable to watch games live. There are also some leagues who have yet to start and that's caused some issues for draft eligible players, especially from the OHL.

A solution for this problem could be for the NHL to hold a draft showcase, possibly in a bubble, and allow teams to send their scouts to watch, and help form their draft lists ahead of the weekend of July 23rd-24th.

The NHL will not defer the 2021 NHL Draft and it will proceed as scheduled in July.https://t.co/TUOrnx8IWN— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 16, 2021

Sorry, July. Old habits— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 16, 2021

Source: Elliotte Friedman/Sportsnet

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