Toronto Maple Leafs Implicated After Stunning Group Decision by the NHL

When it comes to innovation, the NHL has never shied away from trying new things and going out on a limb with new initiatives.

Of course, one of their newest experiments has been the decentralized draft, which was almost universally panned this past season.

Most of the criticism had to do with the first round, which was poorly organized and featured a ton of delays that could have easily been avoided.

However, the league recently held a vote to see whether or not the decentralized draft would continue to be a thing. As it turns out, the majority of teams voted in favor of the format, which came as a shock to the fans.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the 32 team affected, and fans of the team will have to suffer through at least one more version of this format.

That said, as Elliotte Friedman of '32 Thoughts' explained, teams around the league preferred to go down this route because of the secrecy factor.

Overall, the Maple Leafs organization have yet to make their opinion on the decentralized draft public; however, we're sure fans do not approve.

At the end of the day, this has been an odd experiment, and one we can only imagine will continue to be polarizing for years to come.

Whether or not the NHL continues to do it beyond 2026, still remains to be seen.