A draft is a process used in some countries and sports to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selects a player, the team receives exclusive rights to sign that player to a contract, and no other team in the league may sign the player. The process is similar to round-robin item allocation.
The NBA draft is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) annual event, dating back to 1947, in which the teams in the league can draft players who declare for the draft and that are eligible to join their organization. The current NBA consists of 30 teams, and all thirty teams have at least one draft pick throughout the two draft rounds. Historically, the vast majority of players drafted into the NBA are college basketball players.
The NHL Entry Draft is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL) systematically select the rights to available ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirements. The NHL Entry Draft is held once every year, generally within two to three months after the conclusion of the previous regular season. During the draft, teams take turns selecting amateur players from junior or collegiate leagues and professional players from European leagues.
The 1963 NHL Amateur Draft was the first NHL Entry Draft. It was a draft to assign unaffiliated amateur junior-age players to NHL teams. It was held on June 5 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. It was the first amateur draft, which consisted of 16-year-old players.
The MLS SuperDraft is an annual college draft for teams of Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada. It takes place in January and is used by teams to select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been signed by the league. The SuperDraft was first instituted in 2000, as a combination of the MLS College Draft, in which players having graduated from college were selected, and the MLS Supplemental Draft, in which all other players were chosen. The draft is divided into three rounds in which each club has a selection, the order of which is determined by a combination of the teams' playoff and regular season positions, with the last placed team getting the first pick.
The Major League Baseball draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lottery where the teams who did not make the postseason in the past year participate in a state-lottery style process to determine the first six picks, starting in 2023. The team possessing the worst record receives the best odds of receiving the first pick. Until 2022, it was determined by the previous season's standings, with the worst team selecting first.
The CFL draft is an annual sports draft in which the teams of the Canadian Football League (CFL) select eligible Canadian/non-import players, typically from the ranks of U Sports football or NCAA college football. Member clubs make selections based on the reverse order of the previous year's standings, with the team with the worst record being awarded the first selection, the Grey Cup runner-up getting the second-to-last selection and the Grey Cup champion selecting last. The draft is held once every year, approximately six weeks prior to the start of the upcoming season.
The National Lacrosse League entry draft is an annual event where the general managers of National Lacrosse League teams choose eligible players for their rosters from US college programs and Canada's junior lacrosse system.
The 1966 American Football League draft was held on Saturday, November 27, 1965. The AFL added the Miami Dolphins as an expansion team in 1966 to bring its total to nine franchises for its seventh season. The Dolphins were awarded the first overall pick in the draft, who used it to select running back Jim Grabowski. The only Hall of Famer to come out of this draft was kicker Jan Stenerud, who was picked by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round of the Red Shirt portion of the draft.
The 1950 Philadelphia Eagles season was their 18th in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 11–1, winning only six games. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in four seasons.
The 2013 Canadian Football League Expansion Draft was a three-round CFL Draft that took place on Monday December 16, 2013. It was designed to assign players from existing CFL teams to the expansion Ottawa Redblacks. The structure of the draft was announced on January 19, 2011, which described one round for selecting import players and two rounds for selecting non-import players. Additionally, the Redblacks were given the last pick in each of the first four rounds of the 2013 CFL Draft and will also be given the first pick in every round of the 2014 CFL Draft.
The 2013 CFL Draft took place on Monday, May 6, 2013, at 12:00 PM ET on TSN. 60 players were chosen from among eligible players from Canadian Universities across the country, as well as Canadian players playing in the NCAA. The Montreal Alouettes had the most selections with nine, followed by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats with eight. Each of the West Division teams had seven picks while Winnipeg had six. The defending Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts had five picks and Ottawa chose four players from NCAA schools that would play another year. A total of 16 trades were made involving draft picks from this year, including two made on draft day itself, with 12 being made by the Edmonton Eskimos. Of the 60 draft selections, 44 players were drafted from Canadian Interuniversity Sport institutions, which is the highest number of CIS players taken since the 1987 CFL Draft when 50 of 72 were taken. It is also the highest percentage (73.3%) of CIS players taken since 2009.
The 2015 CFL Draft took place on Tuesday, May 12, 2015, at 8:00 PM ET on TSN2 and RDS2. 62 players were chosen from among eligible players from Canadian Universities across the country, as well as Canadian players playing in the NCAA.
The 2014 NBL Canada Draft was held on August 24, 2014, at the Athlete Institute in Orangeville, Ontario. A total of 24 players were selected in three rounds. Jordan Weidner was selected by the Mississauga Power with the first overall pick.
The 2020 Major League Baseball draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season standings. In addition, compensation picks were distributed for players who did not sign from the 2019 MLB draft and for teams who lost qualifying free agents. On March 26, 2020, MLB and the MLBPA reached a deal that included the option to shorten the draft to five rounds, and also shorten the 2021 draft to 20 rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a plan to allow teams to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players for $20,000 each, MLB ultimately opted to shorten the 2020 draft to five rounds. The draft was originally planned to be hosted live for the first time in Omaha, Nebraska, to accompany the since-cancelled 2020 College World Series. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the draft was instead held remotely from MLB Network's studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. With sponsorship from T-Mobile, the event was officially the 2020 MLB Draft Presented by T-Mobile, with ESPN providing live coverage for the first time since 2008, alongside MLB Network.
The 2019 CEBL Entry Draft was the inaugural CEBL Entry Draft, held on March 23, 2019, at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Hamilton, Ontario. Six Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) teams selected 78 athletes in total.
The 2021 Major League Baseball draft took place on July 11–13, 2021. In conjunction with the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the draft was held in Denver. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2020 MLB season standings. In addition, compensation picks were distributed for players who did not sign from the 2020 MLB Draft and for teams who lost qualifying free agents. On March 26, 2020, MLB and the MLBPA reached a deal that included the option to halve the draft to 20 rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MLB ultimately opted to shorten the draft to 20 rounds. In total, 612 college and high school players were drafted.
