With no central NHL draft location this year, Sabres are going to Highmark Stadium

At the behest of the league's general managers, the NHL opted to stay home for its annual amateur draft June 27-28 and stage it remotely, like it did for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most teams are simply going to hunker down in their offices at their practice facilities or arenas for the week, just like they do during training camp or at the trade deadline.

The Buffalo Sabres, however, have opted for a unique approach: The team announced Sunday it is going to run its draft at Highmark Stadium out of the Bills' war room that is specifically designed for the NFL's annual selection of college players.

When the league made it official in February it was doing a remote draft and all team officials were staying home, Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula and his daughter Laura talked to Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams about his plans.

"Terry talked about the differences between the two leagues and how the NFL has done it this way for a long time," Adams told The Buffalo News. "We were thinking about ways to do this and I talked to Brandon (Bills GM Brandon Beane) because we have built a great relationship and he was very gracious. He said he would absolutely turn the facility over to us."

The league is holding a public gathering for selections at the Peabody Theater in Los Angeles, much like the NFL has a stage for fans to gather to watch picks being made. But all team officials and media, who annually pile into a preselected city, are staying home this time.

“The synergies between the Sabres and Bills are genuine and we are well positioned for the new NHL draft process by utilizing the space and experience at One Bills Drive for our Sabres draft this season,” Sabres and Bills Chief Operating Officer Pete Guelli said in a statement issued Sunday. “There’s a strong relationship between both staffs which has made the process seamless and we are grateful to be able to take advantage of an environment that’s been tested and proven on a large scale. 

Last year's draft at Sphere Las Vegas was one of the great television spectacles in league history but general managers have become less enthused by the "destination city" format in recent years.

The first round is staged with thousands of fans in the building and the layout of the draft floor is very tight for 32 teams. Detroit GM Steve Yzerman, in fact, was very public after last year's event about being unable to hear on his cellphone when he was trying to have conversations with other clubs.

Commissioner Gary Bettman deferred to GMs about a decision on the 2025 draft and they voted to run the draft remotely, like was done in 2020 and 2021 when large gatherings were taboo. 

The decision has been largely panned by fans and media and it's known that Bettman was surprised and disappointed by it as well, so it may only be a one-year experiment.

"It's probably 95% of the people look at it as kind of the culmination of your year's work," said Sabres assistant GM Jerry Forton, the team's amateur scouting head for recent drafts. "It was lot of fun to go to a destination city and we all have relationships with people on other teams. You mingle, and you do pick up some information when it's in person at a site that makes some of the work easier. The flip side is, from a pure business and operational perspective, a lot of distractions are removed when you're doing it remote."

Forton said the draft floor has become increasingly crowded in recent years with 32 teams in the league, and most of them bringing along content teams to film the proceedings for club websites and social media. There will be about 40 people in the war room, whereas a table in an arena allows for only about a dozen team reps.

"You're jammed at a table, very close to other teams on all sides of you," Forton said. "It's great for running around and talking to people, but it can be difficult to have interactions with your own staff and amongst each other when you're on the floor. We don't even have all the key people at the table with us. A lot of times, people have to be upstairs in suites."

The Bills' setup includes four 85-inch monitors and four additional 75-inch monitors, and an entire wall used as a whiteboard. The Buffalo media will also be accommodated in Orchard Park, in the same areas where reporters who cover the Bills are normally staged.

"What an advantage for us to have an NFL war room right at our fingertips," Adams said. "It was a no-brainer. It's a big room, with lots of digital walls. I saw it the day after the NFL draft and immediately thought how we could tweak it for our lists."

"An incredible setup," Forton said. "In terms of technology, the space, ability to use the room, it has everything."