Draft Lottery Day

With the playoffs starting tomorrow that means its draft lottery time! Every team who missed the playoffs are in the lottery. The exception this season is that if the Devils win the lottery a re-draw will occur.  Per NHL.com here are the draft lottery odds for each team.

Buffalo Sabres - 25.0%	Toronto Maple Leafs - 3.6%
Florida Panthers - 18.8%	Winnipeg Jets - 2.7%
Edmonton Oilers - 14.2%	Anaheim Ducks (from Ottawa) - 2.1%
Calgary Flames - 10.7%	New Jersey Devils - 1.5%
New York Islanders - 8.1%	Nashville Predators - 1.1%
Vancouver Canucks - 6.2%	Phoenix Coyotes - 0.8%
Carolina Hurricanes - 4.7%	Washington Capitals - 0.5%

Buffalo has the highest odds to win the lottery at 25%, but likely will end up picking second. That for me is a great spot to be in for Buffalo. They obviously are going to be the best player available as they need talent at all positions, and picking second they won’t have to decide whether to take Aaron Ekblad or Sam Reinhart. They can simply take who ever falls to them. For me the interesting storyline is the Oilers. It’s no secret they need defence help, if they don’t win the lottery it will be interesting to see what they do with their pick.

Using the draft simulator on the Oilers website I have the Vancouver Canucks winning the lottery. They would move up from 6 to 1. We will find out tonight if my pick is correct.

*Note post will be updated when the lottery results are revealed.*    

The Florida Panthers are the winners of the NHL Draft Lottery. They move up from two and have the first overall pick in the draft. They move up one spot from last year when they selected Aleksander Barkov second overall. The Sabers will pick second and the rest of the lottery teams remain the same. The off-season is going to be very interesting. With the Oilers as mentioned previously and with the Islanders holding fifth overall.

As you know the Islanders in the Thomas Vanek trade made their first round pick conditional on if it was a top 10 pick. Since it is a top 10 pick they have the option of keeping it and giving their 2015 pick to Buffalo or sending their 2014 pick to the Sabers. Personally I think I would keep the pick at 5. The reason is if you give your 2015 pick away you essentially giving up on next season. The Islanders have a chance to get a solid prospect, whether it be Michael Dal Cole, Leon Draisaitl or even William Nylander. I think the Islanders could be a playoff team next season and by keeping their pick they can fully commit to going for it. They can go out and sign some free agents and make some trades to help them compete next year.

The Oilers are tricky. In listening to Scott Howsen on TSN he mentioned that the Oilers have solid defensive prospects with guys like Darnell Nurse and Oscar Klefbom and that it’s not a guarantee they would take a defenceman. That leads me to believe they make keep their pick and take either Reinhart or Bennett. Personally I would consider moving the pick and see if you could get a big time NHL defencemen.