When the NHL released a memo to their teams on May 1st, Gary Bettman and Bill Daly outlined their desire to fast-track the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. The press release mentioned “early June” as the goal and many prominent media members made an educated guess that June 5th was the desired date for the league to hold the draft.
That was until they held a conference call with the Board of Governors and realized just how much the teams disliked the idea of moving the draft up.
Now, after two weeks of uncertainty, Daly tells Pierre LeBrun that the league is in “no rush” to finalize draft plans - which means it is more likely than not that cooler heads will prevail and the draft will be held whenever the 2019-20 season is completed.