As the pucks dropped on the NHL playoffs, the bids went up at the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundations annual hockey draft.

The event was held in-person for the first time in two years and saw people turning up to celebrate hockey, community, and healthcare at the Living Sky Casino Event Centre.

With 22 teams attending the event to bid on players, items, and packages up for auction, the event appears to have been a roaring success even before the final amount raised has been tallied.

Jim Dekowny, executive director for the foundation, had something of a rough idea for how much they raised throughout the night.

"Usually we would raise about $50,000, $60,000, and then you got your expenses on top of that," explained Dekowny. "So I'm hoping last night we're in that same range. I think that the jerseys and the draft picks we got went for a little bit higher. I'm hoping that we're in the $60,000 to $65,000 range."

Tuesday night there was more than fantasy playoff hockey on the table for bidding, as they also auctioned off tickets to various games, jerseys, and other memorabilia.

After the last two years being virtual events, it seems like a return to an in-person venue helped in bringing out the community in force.

"We have usually about 24 teams," recounted Dekowny. "When we went back to the casino last night, we had 22. We had two teams back out last minute just for different types of reasons but yeah, I think it's better (in person). It was really fun doing it virtually, but it's just much easier when you can get into one room and we can hear each other and hear the announcer."

The event isn't hosted by the foundation alone, as they team up for this event with the Swift Current 57's, which uses their part of the money raised to help fund their operations and team expenses.

All the money raised by the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation will be going to the mental health unit at the Cypress Regional Hospital.