Alex Baumgartner, a beat writer for the Florida Panthers, noted that not a single team congratulated the Florida Panthers for their first Stanley Cup victory in franchise history.
While it is rare for teams not to thank the previous Stanley Cup Winner at the draft, it was honestly a welcome sight. Teams often made their picks quickly at the podium, and thanked a minimal amount of people with a minimal amount of guests and gimmicks.
As a result, the Draft was actually fast paced, full of action, and was completely over in just over three hours. Last year's NHL draft was well over-extended with pointless speaking at the podium, and the NHL likely wanted to speed it up this year in Vegas.
The Florida Panthers and their fans might be irked by the league not congratulating them, and taking it as a sign of disrespect, but in reality it made for a much better product on television and improved the draft entirely. Plus, after winning the Cup this year, no one is feeling sorry for the Panthers.
