The lottery balls were picked, the cards were flipped, and the New Jersey Devils will be selecting first in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. New Jersey was the winner of this year’s NHL Draft Lottery, jumping up four spots to take over the top pick. Against all odds, just an 8.5% chance at #1, they will now have their pick of all the top available prospects come Friday, June 23rd. The Philadelphia Flyers will pick second and the Dallas Stars will pick third, as the balls fell their way as well. Philadelphia leaped forward eleven slots and Dallas up five slots.
With three teams “winning” the lottery, it’s a tough pill to swallow for the Colorado Avalanche. One of the worst teams in recent memory, the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche finished the season with just 48 points, 21 less than the Vancouver Canucks at 29th. Yet, the Avs may miss out entirely on selecting a franchise player in a draft without a consensus star atop the charts. It’s also an unfortunate start for the expansion Vegas Golden Knights. Given the same odds at the third-worst team in the league, Vegas will instead select sixth and will be hard-pressed to find a player ready to jump immediately to the NHL, even though they’ll likely be hungry for help.
For Metropolitan Division foes New Jersey and Philadelphia, the question now becomes: who goes #1? Unlike the past two years – Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews – there is no consensus top prospect in 2017. Heading into 2016-17, Canadian forward Nolan Patrick, of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, was considered the favorite to go first overall. However, after a season filled with injuries, that status is far from a sure thing. The last player to be taken #1 following a final junior season spent mostly on the sidelines was Gord Kluzak by the Boston Bruins in 1982, and Kluzak played only four full NHL seasons before his injuries caught up with him. Patrick did score 46 points in 33 games this season, and racked up 102 points in just 72 games last season, but as they say, “the most important ability is availability”. Flying up draft boards over the last year has been Swiss center Nico Hischier of the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads, and with questions lingering about Patrick, Hischier may wind up as 2017’s top pick. While Hischier doesn’t quite have the size and strength of Patrick, he has all the offensive ability. The swift scorer recorded 86 points in 57 games this season for Halifax and put on a show for Switzerland at the World Juniors.
It’s a difficult choice for the Devils, but one that GM Ray Shero and the New Jersey front office are happy to make. And GM Ron Hextall and the Flyers should be content with the runner-up.
That was complete BS of a lotto draft. Phily Dallas and jersey. F•cken jersey.
What a joke.
My thoughts exactly. No reason why philly, who was a wild card contender this year, should be picking second.
I love it. Stops teams from tanking like the Avalanche
But a team like Philly gets the 2nd pick? How is that fair???
Lotteries were never designed to be fair.
Don’t worry. This draft is one of the weaker ones in the last decade or so. Consider it karma.
Would have been nice to see a full draft order instead of just those 3 picks.
Since the lottery results do effect more than the top 3
Karma for losing Kane to Chicago and winding up with JVR.
Maybe the stars can use the third pick to trade for a young RD like OEL or someone of the ilk
The third doesn’t hold as much value in this draft as it did in last drafts. The past two drafts had lots of great players in the top 10, this one not so much.
Stars should deal #3 and some of the bad contracts to LV for #6
Dallas needs to use this pick and our second or the ducks second ( would be a first but they aint beating EDM ) along with a player or 2 and acquire a goalie! Either that or pay Bishop.
Clearing the cap space would allow them to go after Bishop. Already have a good system, so could move 1 or 2/pick and a bad contract to open up more space
It’s a lottery. Stop whining, Flyers are 2nd. #TrustTheProcess
Heh. Right.