Friday, June 26 was originally intended to be the opening night of the NHL Entry Draft. However, the ongoing pandemic has changed things so instead, the league held its draft lottery on Friday night and given the circumstances, it was a rather unique one. While 15 teams were involved, eight of them aren’t yet known and were simply classified as Qualifier Team A, Team B, etc. This is because those slots are reserved for the eight teams that lose in the play-in round which is presently slated to take place in early August.
While it may seem premature to do the lottery now when more than half the specific teams aren’t known, it at least gave the seven teams that aren’t returning this season some clarity on where they will be selecting.
Before getting to the results and the subsequent fallout from them, here is a quick overview of what the odds were for the top pick heading into the event:
Detroit Red Wings – 18.5%
Ottawa Senators – 13.5%
Ottawa Senators (from San Jose Sharks) – 11.5%
Los Angeles Kings – 9.5%
Anaheim Ducks – 8.5%
New Jersey Devils – 7.5%
Buffalo Sabres – 6.5%
Qualifier Team A – 6.0%
Qualifier Team B – 5.0%
Qualifier Team C – 3.5%
Qualifier Team D – 3.0%
Qualifier Team E – 2.5%
Qualifier Team F – 2.0%
Qualifier Team G – 1.5%
Qualifier Team H – 1.0%
Separate drawings were done for the second and third selection as well with the odds changing based on who won the preceding selection. The results were as follows:
1) Qualifier
2) Los Angeles
3) Ottawa (via San Jose)
4) Detroit
5) Ottawa
6) Anaheim
7) New Jersey
8) Buffalo
It’s certainly a tough result for the Red Wings as they drop three slots while Ottawa was unable to select him with their top (combined) odds. Their bad fortune was good news for the Kings and a team-to-be-named later though and with a qualifier team getting one of the picks, there will be a second draft lottery held at a later date. Each team that loses in the play-in round will have an identical 12.5% odds at the first pick with selections 9-15 being slotted by lowest point percentage during the regular season. If the play-in round doesn’t occur, the remaining bottom eight teams will have the 12.5% odds in the second lottery, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link).
While the league didn’t announce which placeholder team ’won’ the pick, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reports (via Twitter) that it was Qualifier Team E.
The grand prize in this lottery is a chance to select Rimouski (QMJHL) winger Alexis Lafreniere, the CHL’s top player in each of the last two seasons. He has been dominant at the major junior level, compiling 114 goals and 183 assists in just 173 games, one of which came as a 15-year-old underager. He’s expected to be ready to make the jump to the NHL right away and be an impact player in a hurry. We’ll be waiting a while yet to find out who gets him though.
Others expected to contend for early spots are Sudbury (OHL) center Quinton Byfield and Mannheim (DEL) forward Tim Stutzle, while Erie (OHL) defenseman Jamie Drysdale and St. Petersburg (VHL) goalie Yaroslav Askarov are believed to be the top players available at their respective positions.
Stevie Y don’t care he’s got salary cap room for days when every other team is screwed
Habs cap space waves at you*
Shea Webber and Carey Price
may want to see buffalo
Those are two players on their team, yes.
Buffalo is screwed they have a few guys to sign and holes all over their roster. Definitely aren’t in good cap space
Rangers have a chance at the number 1 pick whether they win the series against Carolina one of
*or not
Rangers win the cup and get the #1 pick..
I don’t think the Rangers can get it if they win the Cup. Carolina transfers the worse of their two picks to New York, either theirs or Toronto’s so if one of those picks gets the #1 slot, the Rangers get the other one.
They can. If they beat Carolina and Tor. Loses to CBJ both of the picks to choose from would be lottery picks and still could be the one which was selected #1
Toronto does have to lose or it becomes a moot point
Toronto would have to be in the top 10 for that to even work. If carolina wins the lottery and toronto ends up with the 11th pick then the rangers would pick 11th
Toronto’s pick is top 10 protected and the Rangers get the lower pick so the only way this works I believe is if the leafs lose and end up at 9 or 10 (which requires a number of upsets in this play in) and the canes lose to Nyr and win the draft lottery.
this is correct
Carolina gives the worst of the 2 picks, it doesn’t matter what happens the rags aren’t getting number 1!
I want the 6th Cup, but if not, lose early.
I like our odds in a draft lottery.
The #1 reveal gave mega blue balls to Kings fans who saw the black NHL logo. Happy to move up to #2 but man I really thought we had Laffy
What is going on? It seemed the new General Manager of the Sabres was happy as could be to snare the coveted 8th pick. We will now hear rumblings about how good he was at getting this selection. The franchise is in jeopardy. Hopefully the folks in Countersport will buy back the team.
Screw Betan and his rigged draft lottery.
Bettman
this was seemed rigged yes. soon as that first spot was announced I told my wife a playin team likely “won”. I mean you basically can just run this type of spectacle after round 1 and get more eyes on the show for all the teams eliminated. it’s marketing genius
I’m glad the sens or wings didn’t win, those 2 teams tanked and don’t deserve the 1st pick
The Wings didn’t tank. They were just terrible. It takes a lot of effort to be that bad. Couple of years away
please not oilers. if i am not winnipeg or pittsburgh. I lose my series. they are only two qualifiers I think could win the cup
welcome to everyone’s favorite game show: Throw for Lafreniere
Rigged to the hilt. Fire Bettman.
I like Tim Stutzle a lot.
I don’t like Gary Bettman a lot.
Yzerman commented and said on the stream after that he felt going into today that they would not win the first overall pick and that the odds were stacked against them. Ottawa had a total of 25% chance to win it while playoff teams had a total of 24.5%. Two teams had almost 50% of the entire odds to win first overall, despite the Red Wings having finished 23 points behind Ottawa. Completely ridiculous that a team that has a shot at the cup now will have a shot at #1 overall. They didn’t need to rig the draft, the odds were already against the worst team in the draft.
I really hope after this all that we return to a far more fair system. Punishing tanking is one thing, but punishing teams who tried their best to win games is against the spirit of the game.
The only team that win win the cup and get #1 are ones that own another teams pick
I get the frustration but all teams have a shot at the cup at the start of the season. this play in really is like the end of the regular season except a team like Pittsburgh or Edmonton that was a lock to get in COULD lose and gain this pick.
The NYR can win the cup and get the #1 pick. If they beat Carolina and Tor. Loses to CBJ both of the picks Carolina can choose from would be lottery picks and still could be the one which was selected #1
Toronto does have to lose or it becomes a moot point
They can’t Carolina win and get the first pick! Carolina has the give the rags the worst pick of the 2, if Carolina and the leafs lose only one team can win the 1st pick and the other would go to the rags
It’s impossible they get the worst one, no matter what. Whatever pick they get from Carolina is going to be 10-31
wrong. it’s possible if the canes win the lottery AND the leafs pick is in the top 10 the Rangers get carolina’s pick. it’s highly unlikely, but IS possible.
unless they win the lottery
Ottawa, Detroit and LA got screwed. No team that gets a shot at the playoffs has any business winning the first overall pick. It’s a stupid system designed by stupid people at the NHL head offices who are trying to please the ultra rich owners of the big market teams.
@manos — “No team that gets a shot at the playoffs has any business winning the first overall pick.” My sentiments, exactly. The top 8 picks should have been divided up among the “Banished 7”, with OTT getting the “bonus” extra pick (6+2).
Couldn’t agree more. You should be working at the NHL head offices. That system makes 100x more sense than the incredibly complicated and diluted system they presented last night. A Phase 2 of a draft lottery? Really? Who came up with that?!
NHL for tv viewing and sponsorship
Not sure why I missed that math error, other than a 4-month disconnect from game action. Only seven cards should have been drawn (5 + OTT x2). SJS only had one first round pick, traded to Pierre Dorion & Co. and would be excluded from the first round festivities, barring a trade with another team. So, 7, and not 8 should have been the preliminary draft lottery, followed by the next 8, then the final 16.
Like Uncle Leo, Bettman never ceases to amaze. If the most crapped-up wrong solution to a problem is in a corner of the room, with better solutions everywhere else, he will inevitably gravitate to that corner like it was the event horizon of a supermassive black hole. “What else was I supposed to do?”
He’s like “humm (shakes head a bunch) I wonder what decision will piss people off the most”
@bigdaddyt – Yep! You nailed it! Too bad he can’t be in the middle of laughing his ass off, then turn around and walk into a wall! “Hey, Gary! Frank Drebin says HI!”
If they did the actual ping-pong ball routine live so everyone could see what happens rather than slithering out of the back room with what are supposedly the results, they would gain a lot more credibility.
@Beldar – They were in a hurry to catch the last bus back to Remulak… :)
still those ping pong balls will be weighted by Bettman , so it will still be rigged even in front of true NHL Fans. did I say that? yep! I did.
One Question: What if Corona forces the season to actually end?
Teams ranked 8-15 from the season’s standings each get 12.5% chance of winning the second phase of the lottery
Columbus would edge the Islanders for the 15th spot in that scenario.
The Kings didn’t need a natural goal scorer ready for the NHL anyway…………. Everybody but a “playoff” team got screwed.
The kings moved up in the draft??
Indeed they did but a playoff team got #1. I would have said the same thing if any other of the 7 got the second pick. They all got screwed. Unless I’m not understanding this correctly? Not being smart here. I swear. Doesn’t a playoff team get the first pick?
technically no. the playoffs don’t officially start till after the play in games. so if Montreal loses to Pittsburgh, and wins the draft lottery, it’s not much different than if the season ended and they missed out. what this does do however is give a team who could have made the playoffs with just the regular season a nice consolation prize for not making the official playoffs.
The NHL is getting even for all those years Mr. I out spent them.