The ping pong balls have been drawn and the first 15 picks of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft are set. The league conducted its annual Draft Lottery tonight and the big winners were the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, and Chicago Blackhawks. The Devils, with an 11.5% chance of winning the No. 1 overall selection, did just that and astoundingly will have their pick of the class for the second time in three years. New Jersey won the draft lottery in 2017 and selected Nico Hischier and will have the chance to add another elite talent this year. This continues the almost comical lottery luck that has followed Taylor Hall in his career, moving from Edmonton to New Jersey. The Rangers held a 7.8% chance of moving up to the second overall pick and in this specific draft class were very lucky as well, as their consolation prize will be the second of two elite players at the top of the draft board. This will also be the first time in the modern draft era that New York selects within the first three picks. The Blackhawks may have a more difficult choice facing them at No. 3, but aren’t complaining after jumping from No. 12 into the top three, a move that had just a 3% chance of happening. Chicago has been a dynastic franchise this decade and will look to return to greatness by adding one of the draft’s top talents. Altogether, these three teams all moving up in this order was a result that had just a 0.027% chance of occurring.
Following the lottery results, the odds for which were set by the final league standings for non-playoff teams, the first half of the first round will play out as follows:
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Rangers
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Colorado Avalanche (from Ottawa Senators)
- Los Angeles Kings
- Detroit Red Wings
- Buffalo Sabres
- Edmonton Oilers
- Anaheim Ducks
- Vancouver Canucks
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Minnesota Wild
- Florida Panthers
- Arizona Coyotes
- Montreal Canadiens
The biggest loser of the night has to be the Colorado Avalanche, who fall out of the top three spots despite having a 49.4% chance of winning at least one of the those picks. This is the second time in just three years that Colorado has entered the lottery with the best odds at No. 1, only see three teams win the lottery and pass them up. In 2017, it was again the Devils who stole their top pick. After swindling the Ottawa Senators, it seemed the Avs were destined to cash in, but instead end up with the worst-case scenario. The Los Angeles Kings also have to be unhappy with the results, as the team slides from their second-to-last finish to the fifth overall pick. The Kings desperately could have used an injection of elite young talent next season and may not end up with an immediate contributor at No. 5. While they didn’t have the best of odds, the Vancouver Canucks are undoubtedly still disappointed in missing out on an opportunity to pair Jack Hughes with older brother Quinn Hughes, the team’s first-round pick in 2018 who already made a splash in his first few pro games down the stretch, or to at least make a top-three selection in front of the home crowd.
The younger Hughes, who was actually in attendance at tonight’s lottery event, has of course long been considered the likely top pick this spring and should start getting used to the idea of playing in New Jersey. The U.S. National Team center is considered a high-end play-maker already and turned down a scholarship to the University of Michigan earlier this season, knowing that he could be an impact player immediately in the NHL. As for the fit with the Devils, Hischier has already climbed atop the depth chart at center, but New Jersey will soon be able to boast amazing youth and depth down the middle with the addition of Hughes. Finnish winger Kaapo Kakko has pressured Hughes to be the top pick this year, but many still see him as a close second. The Rangers won’t mind, as Kakko is an extraordinary offensive talent who will score goals and throw his body around right away in the NHL. Kakko could become a major star in the New York market with his flashy goal-scoring ability and will certainly have the opportunity to play a major role right away. At third overall, there are many options for the Blackhawks, but the early expectation based on organizational depth would be a skilled forward like Vasili Podkolzin or Alex Turcotte. Chicago already has several promising young defensemen in the pipeline and can now add an elite forward to their growing young core of Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome, and Brendan Perlini. Now relegated to the No. 4 pick, the Avalanche will still undoubtedly get a strong player, just as they did two years ago with Cale Makar, if not an immediate contributor in the top remaining prospect on their board. A player like big Canadian center Dylan Cozens would fit in nicely with what Colorado is building.
Now that the order is set, the next step is the draft itself. Everyone may have their projections, but only the day of will reveal the actual futures of these teams and players. This year’s draft is set to take place in Vancouver beginning on June 21st, a day that New Jersey, New York, and Chicago are now much more excited for. Stay tuned.
The Canucks could still end up with Jack Hughes…
You could practically see Ray Shero thinking “I wonder if I could get Elias Pettersson for this pick” while talking to Kathryn Tappen.
Come on… The Canucks dont need another brother tandem after having the Sedins for the better part of my natural life.
I was prepared for the worst as a Kings fan and of course it happened. Since they went to this system there is usually heavy movment at the top 3.
The Devils went from winning the lottery in 17 to making the playoffs in 18 to winning the lottery again in 19. Yah…. that’s not shady at all NHL
Total B. S. Two N.Y. teams (yes, Jersey is NY, just smells worse) and Chicago.
You’ve got to be kidding! Big setup! NHL puts the three best in the east again. Screw the west (CA.) again!
Aha obviously won’t happen but it would be pretty cool to see the Canucks draft Quinn’s brother in front of the home fans.
Not that it matters much (if at all) but turcotte is from the Chicago suburbs so there’s that
Complete crap! The Avs are screwed again and by the Devils again! I could’ve lived with dropping to 2nd and “settling” for Kakko, but this just sucks! We badly needed that huge difference maker to improve our offense and lack of secondary scoring.
Did you miss the part where this is the first time the Rangers are picking in the top 3 in their history? Or are letters and words also part of a conspiracy to screw the West?
I cant imagine a professional sports league would be biased to the NJ team out of any of them. (no offense to the state or its residents)
Agree 100%
There’s no setup in the league in regards to the draft lottery. If the NHL was trying to fix the results, McDavid wouldn’t be in Edmonton. That was probably the last place they wanted him to be since Edmonton has shown they can’t do anything with all of the #1 overall picks they have had.
On a side and somewhat related note, I do like how often we see teams jump up in the lottery. While teams will still tank, the lottery the last few years have seemingly been unkind to the bottom 3 teams. As opposed to the NBA where you rarely see teams jump in the lottery (although that might change this year with the new lottery odds).
Also, I would hardly say that the Avs needed a top 2 pick. Would’ve been nice for them of course but they still made the playoffs with basically 1 line carrying the offense. Devils don’t have anything after Hall and Hischier and the Rangers’ best forwards are Zibanejad and Kreider, both of whom are probably best suited for a 2nd line role.
My God, Kings’ can’t even tank properly. Not sure if Kings are infecting Lakers or other way around. What a joke these team are.
@david722 tanking has nothing to do with it since the results were random. I mean the pick that the Avs got from the Senators had a 49% chance of finishing top 2 and the pick fell down to #4. Finishing the season with the 2nd best draft odds is a pretty good tank job.
I was being facetious to point out the futility of their leadership.
Technically the Hawks are in the West
Ummm…you should know that the Blackhawks are in the Western Conference.
This reply was to @murphydog
1966 they picked 2nd
Now all the Rangers have to do is not go off the board and pick a top 2 pick.
As a New Yorker, don’t EVER lump New Jersey in with New York. NJ is the Midwest of the East.
NJD fan and grew up in NJ. Not offended at all. I thought the same thing.
GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!
That’s your problem right there, thinking pro athletes go out and lose on purpose.
Can’t wait for the draft!!!! Let’s Go Rangers!
If Jim Benning trades Elias Pettersson , that would be a conspiracy. Don’t see it happening, but with Benning’s track record who knows!
“This will also be the first time in franchise history that New York selects within the first three picks.” False. As Dugdog83 pointed out, NYR drafted 2nd overall in 1966 when they selected HOFer Brad Park.
Not talking conferences, talking geography.
My point is that I realize that this is what the NHL would want. L.A., Anaheim or Phoenix—-hell no!
Now every game nationally televised will be N.Y., Chicago, Jersey along with the usual Sid the kid and Ovy.
Bigger audience. Why waste New young talent on teams who’s game start after 11 pm at night, when most aren’t up at that time.
Also 1st overall in 1965 and 3rd overall in 1964.
That was before the draft was universal. This is the first time since it was made universal.
If the NHL was interested in sending big talent to NY by fixing the draft you’d think they would have figured out how to do it before now.
If anything the NHL would want to send out young talent, especially an American player like Hughes, to the West to increase interest over there. That’s why Auston Matthews was such a well-covered and hyped up prospect (aside from his talent). He was a very talented player from Arizona as opposed to being from your more normal US hockey hotbeds like the northeast or north central states.
Hell yeah NYR
Mika is a Center
Nothing was more universal than the 60’s
Are y’all not in the playoffs right now?
Shh shh shh don’t make sense they just wanna keep yelling
Some taken
With beaches casinos and mountains
That’s not going to happen. Vancouver won’t trade Pettersson. Vancouver isn’t going to give up extra assets to acquire a higher pick during a rebuild and New Jersey isn’t looking to add veterans. It’s nonsensical on every level.
They really need to fix the reply future in this app it’s been broken for months.
The NHL would want to send an American stud prospect to an American city. Do you not remember Toronto hating the Matthews pick until his first game? That’s all you heard.
Didn’t hardly need it? They actually do, but it doesn’t matter as they deserved it based on having the slot for the worst record.
Kind of like rigging the draft rules and setting up the draft to send Sid the Skid to Pittsburgh and having Mario pass the torch to save the franchise from moving?
As a Devils fan I must say the most joy I get out of this lottery is first getting Hughes and second hearing the Rangers fans bitch about it.
Blackhawks are in the Western Conference.
Conspiracy theorists really crack me up.
Do you really think the NHL would “rig” the lottery for NJ????? Come on! This is an organization Bettman has had it out for since 1995.
What crack are you smoking @goldenmisfit, every Rangers comment I have seen pretty much everywhere is ecstatic they got 2 and the Devils 1. Now the Rangers are in a Win-Win, either Devils pick the logical #1 or go off the board, and the Rangers have a no pressure situation between Hughes and Kakko.
So they deserved it because they made a trade with a team that finished with the worst record? I’d hardly agree with that logic. Finishing with the worst record shouldn’t guarantee you the #1 pick in the draft. Most fans complain about tanking so setting the draft order by record (with no draft lottery) would only increase the amount of teams tanking. I mean just imagine the tank job the league would’ve seen in McDavid’s draft year if the draft order was going to be set by record.
Luck of the draw.