The 2022 NHL Draft will be held in Montreal at the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens. The event will be held over two days, starting on July 7. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement:
We are proud to announce that, once again, we are conducting our Draft in front of the great fans of the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal, the site of the first NHL Draft in 1963, is a wonderful place to bring the NHL family together and to focus on the future of our game as our Clubs call the names of top prospects from around the world. We also thank Geoff Molson and the entire Canadiens organization for their cooperation and support while we needed to conduct the Draft remotely the past two years.
The Canadiens had been set to host the 2020 draft before the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to be held virtually. The expectation since has always been that the league would return to Montreal as soon as it could, and now that is official.
The most interesting part about this announcement is that NHL free agency will not open on July 1, as it did prior to the COVID-shifted calendars. Agent Allan Walsh of Octagon Hockey tweets that the frenzy will be pushed back to mid-July, meaning once again it will be a condensed offseason. This is likely in part due to the extended season, as this year’s schedule is made up of 200 days thanks to an Olympic break in February.
It also means as PuckPedia points out, that the majority of players with signing bonuses will have them paid before the draft and free agency. That could drastically affect teams’ plans and player movement heading into the draft, as huge chunks of salary will have already been paid out.
Magnifique. So the Canadiens can now draft sexual assaulters in front of a home crowd.
Sexual assault? He showed his teammates pics of some puck bunny that supposedly tried to do this to another teammate earlier but got caught in a lie, snowflakes are trying to ruin the kids life for something that is routine with that age group
He showed pictures of her having sex with him.
Yeah. Character guy.
You obviously never played junior hockey, that is nothing compared to what i saw playing i stopped going to parties with the team it was that bad. It was consensual sex and he took a pic of him receiving oral and showed his teammates it literally happens everyday with that age group and even younger
With special guest MC, Louis CK!
If he speaks French, even bigger win.
@non-tendered’s comment. Comments on the app are…ughhh
I’m putting the odds at 40/60 that this draft will be hosted in Bettman’s boardroom again. Truly hope I’m wrong.
I really wish that had autocorrected to bedroom… would have made for an epic comment.