Two in the Box

On a recent episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman floated the idea of the NHL putting on “NHL Con” or soe other form of convention as part of the draft celebration. The idea came as an offshoot of the discussion surrounding the league’s push to decentralize the draft.

It’s a terrific idea that the league should pursue with, or without, a shift in operations for the entry draft. The NHL Draft isn’t quite the fan extravaganza that the NFL Draft has become, but it’s certainly a draw for die-hards and there’s local interest as it moves from city to city. Tying in a massive, hockey-focused festival for the week of the draft would be an excellent way to draw more fan attention to the event, and to keep people engaged beyond the first round on Friday night.

The NHL’s version of Comic Con could become an offseason Mecca for various offshoots of the hockey community. Pulling in interests from equipment, collectibles, hockey history and kid-friendly events could provide days of relevant programming that builds up to the weekend’s draft. There could even be ancillary programming like a concert or two that the NHL could help put together as part of their arrival in the city that week. Maybe, if the city’s layout made sense for it, you could create an NHL Campus. Where you have the arena as ground zero as that is where the draft will occur, but other nearby venues (whether it be a convention center, park, college campus or concert hall) are all part of the programming that takes place during the week. That way if you were a fan hoping to see the Stanley Cup and get some autographs, you’d go to the Fan Fest space at the local convention center. But if you were there for a panel discussion, maybe you wind up at a smaller concert venue close to the arena. Regardless of the shape this would take, I’d hope that Elliotte’s initial suggestion was either an educated guess or that it has caught the ear of the special events people at the NHL and they’ve started to develop something. They won’t be short on options to include.

Fan Fest

This would serve as the catch-all for draft week. Fan fest events could run inside and outside of the draft venue. Ideally, the host city’s convention center would be ground zero for this. The Fan Fest would include all the typical fan-focused events. Interactive games and exhibits like hardest shot and accuracy shooting would be staples. I’d also suggest including an NHL Combine Experience as part of the festival. Maybe leave out the VO2 Max testing, but letting kids (or intrepid adults) try the broad jump, agility test, force plates and other combine tests would be an easy tie-in for the reason everyone is there.

Other easy wins for the Fan Fest would be autograph signings, a concert or two and a heavy merchandise presence. I’m sure Fanatics would enjoy a big footprint in this space to sell misspelled jerseys while other brands with NHL licenses could set up shop as well. The Fan Fest space, assuming it’s primarily held in a convention hall, could be flexed to incorporate other pieces of the events that took place during the week if needed. Overall, the Fan Fest could take on whatever shape you wish as there are scores of these events that take place in sports every year. Whether drawing inspiration from Super Bowl week, MLB FanFest or individual team events, there is a healthy amount of precedent available to guide the league in this respect. 

Hall of Fame Exhibits

Another easy win. Putting the league’s awards on display in the Fan Fest space and bringing other exhibit pieces from the Hall of Fame’s collection would make for a nice attraction for people to visit throughout the week. Draft-specific artifacts and items tailored to the host club and recent Stanley Cup champions would be other pieces I’d assume are included with the Hall of Fame exhibit.

CHEL

Despite the decrease in product quality, the EA Sports NHL series is still the flagship hockey video game. There is a massive community built around the game, the online product and creators whose content is built around the game. The league has even partnered with some of these creators. Not only would it make sense to have an activation for a partner like EA Sports, it would also draw in fans young and old who love the series. I think this would fit well in the fan fest space, but it could be something even larger, depending on how it was managed. An esports tournament could be held in conjunction with draft week, creators could participate in panel discussions and Q&As (more on that later) and I’m sure there’s more EA Sports could bring to the table. 

Upper Deck Trading Card and Collectibles Expo

Upper Deck is a league partner, so giving them added visibility would be logical. The hot collectibles and card market makes this another logical addition. Upper Deck could be the driver, with draft-specific cards or other merch available for purchase, they could also use the event as leverage for teasing the products for the upcoming season. 

Other non-hockey card collectibles and merch tie-ins could also exist in this space. Maybe New Era has reason to drop limited edition caps for the event. Or Mitchell and Ness or another apparel company has a collaboration with the NHL which are part of this portion of the week (Oxford Pennant, for example). That’s a significant community that the NHL could tap into further and doing it with one of their most significant events creates great opportunities for growth.

Coaching Symposium

Depending on the location, this would be organized and run by either USA Hockey or Hockey Canada, but for the sake of any examples, we’ll stick with USA Hockey. It would be really cool to combine classroom and panel discussions with on-ice opportunities for aspiring coaches during the week. Not only could time be set aside to earn your USA Hockey coaching card during the week, additional panel discussions and activities could be dedicated to skill development, specialty coaching (goalies, shooting etc.) along with other relevant coaching-focused content and events. If geography allowed, having a rink nearby available for on-ice sessions would be an awesome tie-in. Imagine if the draft was in Buffalo and on Wednesday of draft week you could sign up for an hour session at Harborcenter where USA Hockey would bring you on the ice for practice and drill demonstrations with notable coaches. They could pull in coaches from NCAA programs and any working on TV panels at the time. They could illustrate their favorite drills and breakdown different practice (or game) scenarios live on the ice and it could all fold into the larger list of events during the week. 

Equipment Expo and Demos

Similar to providing exposure for a league partner in Upper Deck, carving out time for the biggest equipment manufacturers to display their wares. Continuing the Harborcenter trend, it would be very easy to take up the ice on the main rink in order to allow big brands like CCM, Bauer, Warrior and True to set up booths to show off their latest line of equipment while utilizing other space around the rink (the lobby and concourse would be particularly inviting) for other brands to set up shop. Then, rink two could be devoted to on-ice demos. 

Minnesota’s Let’s Play Hockey Expo is massive, and even if the NHL’s version was a fraction of its size, it would be a huge draw. The gear expo could easily eat up an entire day, if not two depending on the market. It would be an awesome way to activate at a local facility, possibly even involving the minor hockey organization that calls the rink home, while also giving exposure to each equipment brand leading up to the draft.

NHL TedTalks

The last piece of draft week programming I’d like to see included in this hypothetical NHL Convention would be an assortment of panel discussions, speeches and other similar events. These could involve ex-players, current or former coaches and GMs, broadcasters, insiders, analytics gurus and more. The one drawback of this plan would be finding venues. A roundtable hosted by Jeff Marek that includes Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux is going to require a much bigger space than a panel on new technology in the sport. That could create a bit of havoc for fans in attendance if they needed to navigate between two or three locations based on venue size. That being said, the beauty of these various panels is that they could be spread throughout the week. You wouldn’t need to devote a single day to this aspect of the convention. So, you could set up shop in a city’s primary theater for big draws (an insider roundtable with Friedman, Dreger and Lebrun) while a smaller space like a hotel conference room may be more befitting of talks on analytics in the game. 

Whether or not venue size and availability would be a problem, I think this speaker series could be an underrated, but highly entertaining aspect of draft week programming. 

Non-NHL Events

Call this the Wrestlemainia effect. I may have stopped watching wrestling back in The Attitude Era, but I know that there are a host of non-WWE properties holding events the week of Wrestlemania. I can foresee a similar thing happening with “NHL Con” (editor’s note: I think we need to agree on a catchier name). 

The Chiclets Cup was hosted here in Buffalo this past summer and the tournament drew a healthy number of participants to Riverworks. Who’s to say that an event like the Chiclets Cup wouldn’t want to schedule their event to coincide with the draft and these new draft week events? I see plenty of social media content about events like “Pucks with Pros” or other beer league style games that feature NHL alumni. The draw of the draft could be a great way to hold a few of these events in where the city the draft takes place. I could even see a tournament, or fantasy camp-style event grow out of this. It wouldn’t hurt the NHL to explore this option as well. 

There’s also all of the hockey media that will be descending on these cities to cover the draft. Live tapings of shows like 32 Thoughts, The Athletic Hockey Show and Spittin’ Chiclets would be a draw for many. And those shows would be right at home in the venues suggested for the aforementioned NHL TedTalks. And that’s just a sliver of the ancillary programming that would come along with this. Creators like Pavel Barber, On the Bench Crew and The Hockey Guys would be right at home at these events, shedding more light on the draft week festivities for those not in attendance but looking forward to the following year. 

It’s surprising that this isn’t something the NHL hasn’t pursued. The All Star fan fest has its place in the league calendar, and this wouldn’t be unique to hockey either. But it has the potential to become a tentpole offseason event within the league and the sport as a whole. Which is the exact sort of thing the NHL should be seeking.