NEWARK – The 2014 NHL Draft will be held over two days, Friday June 27, and Saturday, June 28, it was announced today by the NHL and the Philadelphia Flyers, the host Club of next year's NHL Draft.

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The event will take place at the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Flyers. NHL club executives, scouts and coaches will be present on the NHL Draft floor while more than 10,000 fans and 500 print, television and radio media are expected to attend. It will be the first time the city and facility will host the NHL Draft.

The NHL Draft has grown significantly since the first such event was held in a hotel ballroom in Montreal in 1963. After 17 years of being conducted in various Montreal hotels and the League office in that city, the Draft sported a new look as the historic Montreal Forum played host to the event in 1980 in front of more than 2,000 spectators. Since then, the Draft has been conducted across North America in various NHL cities and arenas.

The Draft offers the opportunity for hockey fans to witness the beginning of the careers of the latest NHL stars. Recent No. 1 overall picks include Alex Ovechkin (Washington, 2004), Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh, 2005), Erik Johnson (St. Louis, 2006), Patrick Kane (Chicago, 2007), Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay, 2008), John Tavares (NY Islanders, 2009), Taylor Hall (Edmonton, 2010), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton, 2011), Nail Yakupov (Edmonton, 2012) and Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado, 2013).

For more historical information and past draft selections, visit www.nhl.com/draft. More information on the 2014 NHL Draft, such as broadcast and ticket information, will be released in the near future.