The Washington Capitals picked in a good spot in last year's draft lottery and despite losing out in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes did get a gem in Ryan Leonard. This year's NHL Draft Lottery will be held on May 7 at NHL Network Studios in Seacaucus, New Jersey. As of this writing on Saturday afternoon the time of the lottery is TBD.
You can catch the lottery on TV on ESPN, Sportsnet and TVAS. The prize this year is Macklin Celebrini who is projected to go number one. He is undecided on where he will go play whether it be collegiately next season or the NHL level after just completing his freshman season at Boston University.
The lottery sets the order for the first 16 picks for the clubs that failed to qualify for the playoffs. There will be ping pong balls and two lotery drawings, one for the number one pick and one for the number two selection. Teams can only move up 10 selections if it wins one of the draws. Only the top 11 teams in the lottery are eligible for the number one pick.
Here are the non playoff team odds to win the 2024 NHL Draft Lottery, as projected by NHL.com:
San Jose Sharks 18.5 percent
Chicago Blackhawks 13.5 percent
Anaheim Ducks 11.5 percent
Columbus Blue Jackets 9.5 percent
Monreal Canadiens 8.5 percent
Utah 7.5 percent
Ottawa Senators 6.5 percent
Seattle Kraken 6.0 percent
Calgary Flames 5.0 percent
New Jersey Devils 3.5 percent
Buffalo Sabres 3 percent
Philadelphia Flyers 2.5 percent
Minnesota Wild 2.0 percent
Pittsburgh Penguins 1.5 percent
Detroit Red Wings 0.5 percent
St. Louis Blues 0.5 percent
Last season it was the Chicago Blackhawks who won the draft lottery for the right to take Bedard. The 18 year old led all rookies with 61 points in 68 games with 22 goals and 39 assists. Celebrini, who's again expected to go number one this year, turns 18 on June 13. The draft itself will be on June 28 with the first round and rounds 2-7 on June 29 at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
Celebrini led Boston University in his freshman season all the way to the Frozen Four semifinals where they came up short in a 2-1 overtime loss to the eventual NCAA National Champion University of Denver, who bested Leonard's Boston College in the finals.