Draft Interview Clarification

I ran some tests on this as well, and it really is the case: if you are placed in the #1 draft slot, you only get selected at positions 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.—you cannot be picked at 2, 4, 6, 8, and so on. It’s ridiculous. This would be easy to fix: the pre-draft interview should yield results of +1, -1, or 0, instead of the current +1/-1 system. In other words, having a neutral outcome for a single answer would allow the whole system to function freely.

Do you see any +3 responses? I suspect there’s a bug where it actually assigns a +3 or -3 in some instances (like NHL26) but still displays only +1 or -1. Or perhaps some random variation has been added.
In NHL 26, you actually couldn't get drafted 3rd overall, because that pick wasn't reachable. We need to get some official information about this.

Thanks for the reply!

I thought it would work like that too, and maybe it does, but I've experimented multiple times with it. I'll experiment more.

But my problem is, if it worked that way, that would mean I'd just have to get a -1 and +1 constantly until the last question. This way, the draft stock would keep switching from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 1st. But it doesn't.

Let's say i constantly switch answers to get + and - in an even way. I get to the last question, let's say, while projected 1st, without going into the negatives (meaning my projection is not 0 or -1 or -2, just 1). If i then give a wrong answer with the intention of decreasing draft stock, the game will give me the "-1 draft stock" animation, but the actual projection won't go to 2nd, it'll just stay on 1st. Same thing happens if i get to the last question with a 3rd projection. I'll give the right answer, the "+1 draft stock" animation will play, and the projection will stay on 3rd. Also, if it really worked like you speculated, it would mean that if i get 2 correct answers at the start (landing on "-1" projection), I'd need 4 wrong answers to go back down to 2nd (-1, 0, 1, 2). I don't. I'll go back to 2nd after only 2 wrong answers. It doesn't make sense.

It seems to me like this is intentional. And the funny part is, i think it goes for every even number. When projected 1st at the start of the interview, you can only end up projected 1st, 3rd, 5th or 7th. I tried getting 2nd, 4th and 6th. It's impossible. I think it's also because there's 8 questions total. I'm not big on math, but it's a combination of initial draft projection and fixed number of questions, i think.

That said, I'll go back a test it again. Maybe I'm just tripping. Thanks again for the reply.

This draft mechanic works in a weird way—let me know if I’ve got this wrong: You start at pick 1; with the next correct answer, you move to pick 0, then -1, then -2, and so on. If you get an answer wrong, you lose your spot and move back the other way: -2 → -1 → 0 → +1, etc. The game displays you as the 1st pick, but the actual number being calculated in the background is incorrect.

I don’t know who came up with such a stupid system, because in NHL26, there was no way to get drafted 3rd—the + and - calculations simply wouldn't allow you to reach that result (if you start from 1st pick).