With the NHL Drafts set for Friday and Saturday in St. Paul, Minn., the question came up again: Would the Capitals push to host the event at Verizon Center in the near future? It is something owner Ted Leonsis has said in the past he would like to do and general manager George McPhee reiterated that during a conference call last week.
Easier said, than done, of course. The competition for hosting a draft and/or the NHL All-Star game has grown fierce in recent years. And Washington is already expected to host a Winter Classic sometime soon. But the organization clearly sees value in these events and believes they would be both well received and supported here given the popularity of the annual rookie development camp in July at Kettler Iceplex and the Caps Convention in September. Even the Frozen Four drew rave reviews after the NCAA college hockey championship was played at Verizon Center in 2009.
The NHL draft itself was held exclusively in Montreal from 1963 until 1984. The last five years in Montreal the league moved the event out of area hotels and to the fabled Montreal Forum, longtime home of the Canadiens. It’s been conducted almost exclusively at league arenas since then. But only recently has the NHL started moving it around North America. And even then a new building will get an organization a second – or third or fourth – shot at hosting.
Montreal has held the draft four times (1986, 1988, 1992, 2009) since it stopped serving as the permanent site. This year will be Minnesota’s second time since 1989. Vancouver got it in 1990 and again in 2006 at GM Place. But even though it’s never been held in Washington that wouldn’t guarantee the Caps anything. There are still a dozen or more franchise’s who will stake an equal claim. Every Canadian team has hosted since 1986 when the draft moved to a convention center in Toronto, but that city would argue it has never been held at Air Canada Center. And Winnipeg, of course, is a good bet now to be awarded a draft sometime soon. It rejoins the NHL this fall after the move of the Atlanta Thrashers was approved by the NHL’s Board of Governors yesterday.
Other teams besides the Caps that have never hosted and have relatively new or renovated arenas to show off: New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils, Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks and Phoenix Coyotes. Think you can forget about the Coyotes for now given their arena situation. Detroit – even though it doesn’t have a new arena – hasn’t seen the NHL draft since 1987. Pittsburgh had it in 1997, but again – there’s the shiny, new CONSOL Energy Center. But despite the competition the Caps are going to push for it to happen here.
“We’d like to do it. That’s something we’ll get working on,” McPhee said. “Obviously, they get awarded a few years in advance. But it’s something that I think would really resonate well in our marketplace and people would like to watch it. It’s a pretty neat scene…There’s a lot going on and it’s serious and it’s sophisticated. And it’s neat to see that kind of intensity. And you get to see how hard the teams work at it because the scouts work at it all year long for one day – or two days now. They really stay with it and compete hard at the tables.”
Follow me on Twitter @bmcnally14
