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2020 NHL Draft Lottery Recap

Andre ParaisoBy 4 Mins Read

The 2020 NHL Draft Lottery happened on June 26 with Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly calling out the draft order. This year’s draft lottery is a bit different. There are still 15 eligible teams, but six of those teams are already determined since they will not be playing in the qualifying rounds. Those seven teams consist of the Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres. The other eight teams are teams that get eliminated from the qualifying rounds once the season resumes play. 

The Sharks’ pick belongs to the Ottawa Senators. The Senators traded defenseman Erik Karlsson to the Sharks on Sept. 13, 2018, for a first-round pick in the 2019 or 2020 NHL Draft, a second-round pick in the 2019 draft, two conditional draft picks and multiple players.

Here now are the odds of getting the number one draft pick for the 2020 draft:

The 2020 NHL Draft order from phase one from the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery.
An eliminated qualifying team from the qualifying rounds will pick first in the 2020 NHL Draft. Image courtesy: Bruce Bennett

Draft Odds

  1. Detroit Red Wings – 18.5%
  2. Ottawa Senators – 13.5%
  3. Ottawa Senators (from SJS) – 11.5%
  4. Los Angeles Kings – 9.5%
  5. Anaheim Ducks – 8.5%
  6. New Jersey Devils – 7.5%
  7. Buffalo Sabres – 7.5%
  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%

This year’s draft lottery is the two phases the league drew up for the draft lottery. Here’s a breakdown of both phases:

Phase One

The first phase will essentially go through the same rules as usual. The first three drawings will determine the first three picks of the 2020 NHL Draft. The teams that aren’t drawn will be slotted in reverse order based on the points percentage from this season. Phase two will not be necessary should any of the six teams draw the number one pick. 

Phase Two

Phase two will take place if a qualifying team draws the number one pick. All eight teams that didn’t advance to the first round of the playoffs will be eligible for the draft lottery and have equal odds to win the number one pick at 12.5%. After the drawing of the first pick, the rest of the teams will be slotted in reverse order based on the points percentage from this season.

Now that the rules are covered let’s recap what happened during phase one:

Recap

Commissioner Gary Bettman and other representatives drew the first three picks of the draft before the draft lottery was broadcasted. Those results then went to the Daly and the broadcast began. What happens next shocked everybody in the hockey universe. Here is the current draft order after phase one:

  1. Team E
  2. Los Angeles Kings
  3. Ottawa Senators (SJS)
  4. Detroit Red Wings
  5. Ottawa Senators
  6. Anaheim Ducks
  7. New Jersey Devils
  8. Buffalo Sabres

9-15. TBD

Maybe “tanking” isn’t always the best way to ensure a number one draft pick. Take a look at the Red Wings. They have the league’s worst points percentage this season but ended up with the fourth draft pick. The biggest jumps in the draft lottery were the Kings and Team E.

Alexis Lafreniere is projected to go number one in this year's NHL Draft.
Rimouski Océanic’s Alexis Lafreniere is projected to be the number one draft pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Image courtesy: Mathieu Belanger

Hockey Twitter wasn’t happy after these results. You may be wondering why? The main reason being that a qualifying team can lose in the qualifying rounds but still have a chance for the number one pick. This year’s projected number one draft pick is Alexis Lafreniere from Canada and he’s a player that any of those seven teams could’ve used. With that said, here’s to the team that will likely get Lafreniere with their first pick.

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