NHL Draft lottery to be held on Tuesday; Jackets 25 percent chance to win
The Jackets hope Bill Daly holds up this card first.
For 14 of the NHL's 30 teams, the season came to a close on Saturday afternoon, the 82-game grind finished. But the good news is that they don't have to wait long at all before beginning the preparations for next season.
The NHL Entry Draft lottery will be held on Tuesday to determine the one and only one team who is going to get some good luck after a bad-luck season. And as has become custom in sports, a segment which could take fewer than five minutes will comprise a 30-minute show on TSN in Canada and NBC Sports Network in the States.
Just in case you don't remember how the NHL lottery differs from, say, the NBA system, only one team wins the lottery. Moreover, said winning team can move up no more than four draft positions. That means that only the top five (or bottom five if you want) will have a chance at the No. 1 overall pick. So if the Flames, the team with the worst odds in the lottery, win, they will draft 10th instead of 14th.
The only teams that can select first overall are the Blue Jackets, Oilers, Canadiens, Islanders and Maple Leafs. Why do I get the sense that after the season they just went through the Blue Jackets are going to lose here, too? Nothing more than a hunch, but I just have a funny feeling one of those other four teams are going to have the ball bounce their way and select first, bumping the Jackets to second.
The Oilers, you'll remember, picked first overall the last two seasons. If they win the lottery and have the first pick again, they become the first team since the Nordiques in 1989-91 to pick first in three consecutive seasons. Remember, that was with a lot fewer teams in the league at the time, too.
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