The NHL made a point of explaining that prior to 1994, the last time the draft was annoyingly in the middle of the week, non-weekend draft days were common. Prior to 1994, the internet was a little less common as well. They should have stuck to the truth as the only excuse needed: They had reason to think they needed to move quickly with this offseason when they made the calendar of critical dates in the CBA Memo of Understanding back in July.

That’s why we’re here on a Tuesday, waiting for this evening and round one of the draft.

Entry Draft 5Ws

What: The 2020 NHL Entry Draft

Where: dozens of offices living rooms, family basements, the Maple Leafs dressing room, billet houses, dorm rooms European bedrooms and the NHL’s television studio. This is the first-ever virtual draft.

When: Round one is tonight beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Time which is...

  • 4 a.m. in Ufa where Rodion Amirov plays
  • 2 a.m in St. Petersburg where Yaroslav Askarov plays, as well as in Helsinki where Anton Lundell plays
  • 1 a.m. in Manheim where Tim Stützle plays, and in Gothenburg where Lucas Raymond plays
  • 8 p.m. in Halifax where Justin Barron plays
  • 6 p.m. in Grand Forks where Jake Sanderson wishes he was playing
  • 5 p.m. in Prince Albert where Kaiden Guhle would like to be on the ice
  • 4 p.m. in Kamloops where Connor Zary also wishes he was playing/

Round two is Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, end time unknown.

Who: 31 teams pick from hundreds of draft eligible players. There are 217 draft picks this year with the New York Rangers having the first, the Tampa Bay Lightining having the last, and the Leafs with  11 spread out in the middle.

Watch it: Round one on Sportsnet, TVA and NBCSN, and Round two on SN1 and NHLN

We’ll have all your Leafs picks as fast as we can get information on them out to you as usual, as well as trades, rumours and some speculation.

Watch your rumour sources! Draft day is a day for fake twitter handles, fake insiders, and pretenders who guess plausibly and enjoy getting retweeted on things they made up.

NHL Draft