The draft order will be randomized once 32 GMs are in. It will be a snake draft (e.g., 1st overall next drafts at 64th overall) with 21 rounds.
For a bit of competitive integrity, there will be a reversed third round as well as a penalty for drafting Connor McDavid. The team that selects McDavid will forfeit their next pick (i.e. their 2nd round pick). This forfeited selection will be moved to the last round of the draft to ensure that every team selects the same number of players.
There will be a clock.
It will run from 12:00 PM EST (9:00 AM PST) to 3:00 AM EST (12:00 AM PST).
The first three rounds (1-3) will have a 3 hour clock.
The next eleven rounds (4-14) will have a 1 hour clock.
The next six rounds (15-20) will have a 30 minute clock (which may be lowered further at other GMs' discretions)
The final round (21) will be first come, first serve. Once the last pick of the 19th round is made, the round 21 picks can be made in any order.
Each team must draft the following:
12 forwards
6 defensemen
2 goaltenders
1 head coach
All skaters and goalies must have an active NHL contract in order to be eligible (e.g., no 2023 and beyond entry draftees, no KHL players, no unsigned college players). They do not have to be on an NHL roster, however (i.e., players in the CHL or AHL are eligible).
The head coach must be an active head coach or assistant coach in the NHL.
The winner will be determined through a group stage, and then a bracket. The group stage will work by teams being placed into 8 groups of 4 teams. All participating GMs will then vote on which team they believe is the best in each group. The winner must gain a majority of the votes, otherwise the group vote will be repeated with the team receiving the least votes being removed. This will repeat until a majority winner for each group has been determined. Once the 8 group winners have been determined, they will be placed into a randomized bracket. Participating GMs will vote on the bracket for the first two rounds. The finals will then be taken to the Polls board, where the vote will include any HF user.
