NHL monitoring L.A. riots before hosting 2025 draft

The growing unrest in southern California could affect the league’s plans for an upcoming event.

Per Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli, the NHL is keeping an eye on the riots going on around the city of Los Angeles, the scheduled host city for the 2025 NHL Draft.

This year’s event is set to be held at the Peacock Theater and LA Live, which is within a current boundary where there is a designated curfew restricting any activity from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time.

The first round of the draft is scheduled to begin on Friday, June 27 at 4 p.m. PT., with the final six rounds being completed on Saturday, kicking off at 9 a.m. PT.

This is the first decentralized draft, meaning the 32 teams will be in their own respective “War Rooms” rather than being on-site. However, the 100 top prospects are planning on being in attendance. However, with just 16 days until the draft, the league may have to make a decision soon about how the event will proceed if the civil unrest continues around Hollywood.

The widespread protests around L.A. were sparked when news of federal enforcement agencies, particularly that of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), began conducting immigration raids around the city. ICE has raided several locations around Los Angeles, arresting people allegedly involved in illegal immigration into the U.S., among other supposed violations.

This led to President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard, leading to more unrest around the city.

With the curfew in place, city police have arrested a large number of people who have defied the area ordinance.

There has been no reported backup plan for the NHL on how it would conduct the draft if the protests were to continue for the next two weeks.

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