NHL draft lottery set for May 10 as Habs and Yotes have best odds
Anthony Scultore
|
The 2022 NHL Draft Lottery is set for May 10 and will be conducted remotely, per multiple reports.
Sixteen teams that miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be entered into the draft lottery. The team with the worst record during the regular season will have the highest chance of winning the first overall pick. The website Tankathon has that at 16.6%
Last year, the Buffalo Sabres finished with an NHL-low 37 points and won the right to select Owen Power with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2021 draft. Power recently signed with the team after completing his college season at Michigan.
NHL Draft Lottery rule changes
The NHL made some changes to the Draft Lottery back in April, 2021. Those calls to take action came after the New York Rangers selected second and first overall in 2019 and 2020 respectively despite just missing the playoffs in each season.
2022 NHL Draft Lottery:
- Teams will be restricted from moving up more than 10 spots if it wins one of the lottery draws.
- Teams cannot win the lottery more than twice in a five-year period. Wins in the lottery prior to 2022 will not be counted toward this total.
That means the 12th place team (currently the Columbus Blue Jackets) can select no higher than second overall.
Positions are not yet finalized but the Arizona Coyotes (49 points) and Montreal Canadiens (51 points) are in a great spot to capture the first overall pick.
Forward Shane Wright of the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs is expected to be the top pick.
Here’s the percentages to win the first overall pick for the three worst teams in the NHL via Tankathon:
- 16.6%
- 12.1%
- 10.9%
NHL Draft in Montreal
The Montreal Canadiens will host the 2022 draft on July 7-8 at the Bell Centre.
The city had been scheduled to host the draft in 2020, but the event was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic instead, as it was in 2021.
“We are proud to announce that, once again, we are conducting our Draft in front of the great fans of the Montreal Canadiens,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “Montreal, the site of the first NHL Draft in 1963, is a wonderful place to bring the NHL family together and to focus on the future of our game.
The draft will start July 7 with the first-round picks. Rounds two through seven will be held the following day.
Montreal has hosted the event 26 times, most recently in 2009. The league conducted the 2019 draft in Vancouver.
–Field Level Media contributed to this report.