How Does the NHL Draft Lottery Work?

The NHL Draft Lottery is a process that is used to determine the order of selection for the first round of the NHL Entry Draft.

Introduction

The NHL Draft Lottery is a weight-based system used to determine the order of selection for the first 14 picks of the NHL Entry Draft. This year, the Draft Lottery will be held on April 28th, 2019. The lottery will be conducted prior to the start of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There are three draws in the NHL Draft Lottery:
-The first draw is for the first overall pick.
-The second draw is for the second overall pick.
-Both draws are weighted equally at 200 out of 1000 total possible points.
-The third and final draw is for the third overall pick.
-This draw is weighted at 100 out of 1000 total possible points.

The 14 teams that did not qualify for this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, or who have acquired an qualifying team’s draft position, are eligible to win one of these three picks. The remaining 13 lottery teams will be assigned draft positions 4 through 16 based on their regular season standings.

What is the NHL Draft Lottery?

The NHL Draft Lottery is a system used by the National Hockey League (NHL) to determine the order of selection for the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. It is a weighted system that gives all teams a chance at the first overall pick, while also giving the worst team in the league the best chance of winning the lottery.

How the NHL Draft Lottery Works

The NHL Draft Lottery is a weighted system that gives all 14 non-playoff teams a chance at winning the first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft. The odds of winning the lottery are based on where a team finishes in the standings, with the worst team having the best chance at winning and the Stanley Cup winner having the worst chance.

There are three draws in the NHL Draft Lottery: one for the first overall pick, one for the second overall pick, and one for the third overall pick. The 14 non-playoff teams are each assigned a certain number of balls, with the worst team getting three balls and the Stanley Cup winner getting just one ball.

The balls are then placed into a lottery machine and drawn randomly. The team that gets the first ball drawn wins the first overall pick, while the team that gets the second ball drawn wins the second overall pick, and so on. In cases where two or more teams have an equal chance of winning (for example, if two teams finished with identical records), those teams will be given equal chances of winning each of the top three picks.

The NHL Draft Lottery is weighted so that teams that miss out on playoffs or who lose in early rounds have a better chance at a higher draft pick, but it’s not always an accurate representation of where teams should picking in any given year.

The Odds of Winning the NHL Draft Lottery

There are 14 teams in the NHL Draft Lottery. The odds of winning the lottery are as follows:

-The team with the worst record has a 25% chance of winning the lottery.
-The team with the second-worst record has a 18.8% chance of winning the lottery.
-The team with the third-worst record has a 14.2% chance of winning the lottery.
-The remaining 11 teams each have a 2.1% chance of winning the lottery.

Once the 14 teams are selected, they are placed into three different groups:

-Group 1: The team with the worst record, the team with the second-worst record, and the team with the third-worst record.
-Group 2: The remaining 11 teams that did not make Group 1.
-Group 3: The five teams that did not make Group 1 or Group 2.

Conclusion

Now that you know how the NHL draft lottery works, you can follow along with the event each year to see which team will get the first overall pick. Keep in mind that the odds are not always in favor of the team with the worst record — sometimes, luck plays a role in who walks away with the first overall pick.