The Montreal Canadiens will host the 2022 NHL Draft
NEW YORK — The National Hockey League announced Friday that the Canadiens will host the 2022 NHL Draft. This 2022 edition will mark the 27th time that the Canadiens have hosted the Draft, a first since 2009. The city was to host the 2020 NHL Draft, which was instead held virtually for health and safety reasons relating to the COVID-19.
The 2022 NHL Draft will take place over two days, Thursday, July 7 (first round televised on Sportsnet, TVA Sports, ESPN or ESPN2) and Friday, July 8 (second through seventh rounds; telecast details will be announced when they are known). Club executives, scouts and coaches will be present on the floor of the NHL Draft while thousands of fans and hundreds of print, television and radio journalists are expected for the occasion.
« We are proud to announce that once again, we will be holding our Draft in the presence of the great fans of the Montreal Canadiens, » said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Host of the first NHL Draft in 1963, Montreal is a wonderful place to bring the NHL family together to look to the future of our game as our clubs invite top prospects from around the world to join their ranks. We also thank Geoff Molson and everyone in the Canadiens organization for their cooperation and support as we had to run the Draft remotely over the past two years. »
“We are very happy to have been chosen by the League to host the Repêchage, which will take place in Montreal for the first time since 2009”, mentioned France Margaret Bélanger, President, Sports and Entertainment of Groupe CH. « On behalf of all the fans and the organization, we would like to thank the NHL for this vote of confidence, which will allow us to finally present this major event after two virtual editions, in addition to providing an unforgettable experience to several young players. »
“NHL hockey being a major tourist attraction in the city, Tourisme Montréal is happy to fulfill its mandate by contributing to the return of this event to our beautiful city,” says Yves Lalumière, President and CEO of Tourisme Montréal. “We are thrilled to once again welcome teams and players to Canada’s premier sports city. »
The NHL Draft is an opportunity for hockey fans to witness the start of the careers of the NHL’s newest stars. Recent first draft picks include Alex Ovechkin (Washington, 2004), Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh, 2005), Erik Johnson (St. Louis, 2006), Patrick Kane (Chicago, 2007), Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay, 2008), John Tavares (NY Islanders, 2009), Taylor Hall (Edmonton, 2010), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton, 2011), Nail Yakupov (Edmonton, 2012), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado, 2013), Aaron Ekblad (Florida, 2014) , Connor McDavid (Edmonton, 2015), Auston Matthews (Toronto, 2016), Nico Hischier (New Jersey, 2017), Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo, 2018), Jack Hughes (New Jersey, 2019), Alexis Lafrenière (NY Rangers, 2020 ) and Owen Power (Buffalo, 2021).
The NHL Draft was held in various Montreal hotels, at the League’s offices in Montreal and in the historic Montreal Forum from 1963 to 1984. The event was presented outside Montreal for the first time at the Metro Toronto Convention Center in 1985. Montreal then hosted the Draft in 1986, 1988, 1992 and 2009.
Plans related to tickets, related events and other details on hosting the 2022 NHL Draft will be announced at a later date. For all historical information and past draft selections, visit the page records.nhl.com. The NHL Network and NHL.com will provide extensive live coverage of the event before and after the NHL Draft. NHL Social™ will provide exclusive coverage on all social media platforms and those who wish to join the conversation can use the official hashtags #RepechageLNH or #NHLDraft.
