NHL to Conduct Phase One of Draft Lottery Friday

The NHL is conducting phase one of the Draft Lottery this Friday

As the NHL is chugging towards Return to Play, there are already plans to conduct the first phase of the draft lottery this Friday, June 26th.

There is finally some movement in the NHL as the league pushes for phase one of the Draft Lottery this Friday. This comes on the heels of the fact that the NHL still doesn’t have an answer for Hub Cities as they monitor the COVID situation across North America.

The first phase will be aired on NBCSN and NHL Network in the US as well as SportsNet and TVA sports in Canada at 8pm ET. It will be done completely remotely and probably be the most complicated lottery in the history of the sport.

So here is the kicker, this draft lottery will include unknown teams, labeled teams A-H as well as the seven teams that will not be involved in the 24 team return to play plan. If any of the unnamed teams win any of the first three draft picks that are awarded via the draft, then there will be a phase two of the lottery that will happen after the end of the play-in round.

If none of those teams earn any of the top three draft picks then the remaining draft order will be in inverse point percentage and there will not be a second phase to the draft lottery.

Phase two will determine which of the play-in losing teams will be awarded that pick with all teams having equal odds until the top three draft picks are awarded. After that draft order will be in inverse point percentage. Here are the draft odds by team:

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1. Detroit Red Wings-18.5%
2. Ottawa Senators-13.5%
3. Ottawa Senators-11.5% (Acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks)
4. Los Angeles Kings-9.5%
5. Anaheim Ducks-8.5%
6. New Jersey Devils-7.5%
7. Buffalo Sabres-6.5%
8. Team A-6.0%
9. Team B-5.0%
10. Team C-3.5%
11. Team D-3.0%
12. Team E-2.5%
13. Team F-2.0%
14. Team G-1.5%
15. Team H-1.0%

So what does that mean to a team like the Carolina Hurricanes? By the end of Friday we will know if any of the teams that are competing in the play-in round will have a chance at earning a top pick in the draft, which might give us some intriguing story-lines for winners or losers.

Say the Hurricanes lose to the Rangers and the first draft pick was lottery awarded to “Team F” then they would have an equal chance to draft top-ranked North American skater Alexis Lafreniere as any of the other seven teams who lose in that round. Basically a 12.5% chance, which is actually higher than third worst team in the league during phase one.

We have no idea how this will actually end up. Like I said, this will be the most complicated draft in the history of the league. Took me a bit of time to fully comprehend and break it down. Who knows, perhaps the Hurricanes and the rest of the play-in teams will have a win-win situation going into play.

Question for CC Readers: What do you think of the way the Draft Lottery will work?