Hollywood collided with hockey on Friday night as Adam Sandler—clad in Happy Gilmore’s Bruins jersey—and producer-investor Jerry Bruckheimer emerged at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater to reveal Boston’s and Seattle’s first-round choices during the NHL’s inaugural “decentralized” draft, a broadcast that linked 32 team war rooms to a live audience in one venue.
Sandler announced Boston’s selection of Boston College forward James Hagens, a moment Sportsnet framed as the teen instantly becoming “Happy Gilmore’s favourite player.”
Minutes later Bruckheimer—long a minority owner of the Kraken—read Seattle’s card for centre Jake O’Brien, the pick confirmed from the club’s remote draft suite as cameras cut between the theater and team headquarters.
The NHL adopted the two-day hybrid format this year, installing more than 100 cameras and calling on celebrities, alumni and current players to keep television energy high while general managers stayed home, the league said in advance of the show.
For Sandler, the appearance dovetailed with Netflix’s marketing push for Happy Gilmore 2, whose trailer dropped 48 hours earlier ahead of a 25 July release; the sequel marks nearly 30 years since the original golf comedy teed off.
Bruckheimer used his turn at the microphone while his Brad Pitt-led racing epic F1 opened nationwide, a $250 million Apple–Warner Bros. co-production buoyed by an ecosystem-wide promotional blitz that Business Insider described as “extensive and creative.”
Daily Faceoff’s roster of guest presenters underscored the league’s strategy: alongside Sandler and Bruckheimer, NBA champion Luguentz Dort, rapper Bad Bunny and multiple Olympic medalists announced picks, expanding the draft’s reach beyond core fans.
Hagens called hearing his name from Sandler “surreal,” while O’Brien said meeting the producer behind Top Gun: Maverick is “a story I’ll tell my grandkids,” reactions that quickly drove Deadline’s clip of the cameos past one million views on X.
