2024 NHL Draft to be held at the Sphere in Las Vegas

The location of next year’s draft has been decided…and it is a doozy.

During the NHL Board of Governors meetings, it was decided that the 2024 NHL Draft will be held in Las Vegas, at the popular Sphere.

It is the last draft of the centralized format, before the league moves forward with a new setup starting in 2025.

The draft is scheduled to take place June 28-29. The league will reveal the layout of the draft floor in the coming months.

The talent level set to be selected in Sin City is going to be deep. Whether it be Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini, Cole Eiserman from the U.S. National Team Development Program, or SKA St. Petersburg product Ivan Demidov, there is a great player pool that teams will be selecting from.

Celebrini has just been named to Team Canada’s World Juniors camp roster.

It will be the first time in 18 years the NHL Draft has been held in a venue other than an arena. While the 2020 and 2021 drafts were virtual, the 2005 edition of the event was held inside the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. That was when the Pittsburgh Penguins infamously won the first overall pick, selecting future Hall of Famer, Sidney Crosby.

The draft, which was instituted in 1963, was held in Montreal for the first 22 years of existence. It was held anywhere from the Queen Elizabeth and Mount Royal Hotels, to the NHL offices from 1963 to 1979, before the 1980 draft was held in the famous Forum, beginning the run of arena ventures.

Sphere, previously known as the MSG Sphere, opened a couple of months ago to rave reviews. Its first performance saw U2 play an exciting and wild show on September 29.