from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,

The NHL did not have the scouts in mind when it set this year’s date for the draft lottery, but the hardest-working unsung heroes in the hockey industry were the ones cheering the loudest when the league announced this year’s event will take place on the eve of the playoffs the night of April 9.

That’s three weeks prior to when it has been held the past three years and that may not seem like much of change to the casual fan, but for the people who beat the bushes looking for talent, it makes all the difference in the world. The last couple of years the league had held the lottery toward the end of April, which put it early in the second round of the playoffs. The problem with that for scouts is that by the time they knew exactly where their teams were picking, most of the players had already finished their seasons, with the World Under-18 Championship finished and many players finished their junior and college playoffs.

As rich as a lot of NHL teams are, there are a finite number of dollars and resources devoted to scouting. So being able to spend those dollars wisely and focus on the players you know will be available is a huge boon to the scouts.

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