Talk of Rangers trading Jacob Trouba to Detroit growing

LAS VEGAS — There was Celine Dion — yes, the Celine Dion — on the podium representing the Canadiens and announcing their fifth-overall pick, Ivan Demidov.

This was not your grandaddy’s NHL draft.

There were bells, there were whistles, there was glitter and all that jazz at The Sphere, which, as Gary Bettman noted, was host of the “most dazzling [draft] yet.”

But it also unfortunately represented the final centralized NHL draft after nearly five decades of the league convening in a selected location in late June. Next year the NHL will move to a remote draft that will be conducted in similar fashion to the NFL and NBA.

This is a function of cost and also of the condensed calendar in which free agency will follow Saturday’s conclusion of the draft by only two days. The new way presumably be more effective but there is going to be something lost when the kaleidoscope of NHL management personnel no longer convene on the draft floor.

This was a night of theatrics on which Jim Dolan’s crew put on a stunning show. That would be The Sphere’s creative crew not and necessarily the hockey crew. That will have to wait until the free agent market opens on Monday after GM Chris Drury’s effort to move up from No. 30 overall never gained traction.