The Draft Lottery
The National Hockey League Draft Lottery is a weighted system to determine the order of selection for the first 14 picks of the Draft.
The Draft Drawing involves clubs that did not qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs, or the clubs that acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff clubs.
From 1995 through 2012, the league's rules stipulated that the club selected in the Draft Lottery could not move up more than four positions in the draft order. Thus, the only clubs with the opportunity to receive the first overall selection were the five teams with the lowest regular-season point totals, or the clubs that acquired an eligible club's first-round draft pick. No club will move down more than one position as a result of the Draft Lottery.
At the conclusion of the 2012-13 season, the odds for all 14 non-playoff teams were be the same but the club selected in the Lottery was awarded the first-overall pick.
NHL Draft Lottery History
|
| YEAR |
WORST TEAM |
LOTTERY WINNER |
1ST OVERALL TEAM |
1ST OVERALL PICK |
WINNER'S PICK |
| 1995 |
Ottawa |
Los Angeles* |
Ottawa |
Bryan Berard |
Aki Berg |
| 1996 |
Ottawa |
Ottawa |
Ottawa |
Chris Phillips |
- |
| 1997 |
Boston |
Boston |
Boston |
Joe Thornton |
- |
| 1998 |
Tampa Bay |
San Jose# |
Tampa Bay |
Vincent Lecavalier |
- |
| 1999 |
Tampa Bay |
Chicago** |
Atlanta |
Patrik Stefan |
Pavel Brendl*** |
| 2000 |
Atlanta |
NY Islanders |
NY Islanders |
Rick DiPietro |
- |
| 2001 |
NY Islanders |
Atlanta |
Atlanta |
Ilya Kovalchuk |
- |
| 2002 |
Atlanta |
Florida^ |
Columbus |
Rick Nash |
- |
| 2003 |
Carolina |
Florida^^ |
Pittsburgh |
Marc-Andre Fleury |
- |
| 2004 |
Pittsburgh |
Washington |
Washington |
Alexander Ovechkin |
- |
| 2005 |
- |
Pittsburgh+ |
Pittsburgh |
Sidney Crosby |
- |
| 2006 |
St. Louis |
St. Louis |
St. Louis |
Erik Johnson |
- |
| 2007 |
Philadelphia |
Chicago |
Chicago |
Patrick Kane |
- |
| 2008 |
Tampa Bay |
Tampa Bay |
Tampa Bay |
Steven Stamkos |
- |
| 2009 |
NY Islanders |
NY Islanders |
NY Islanders |
John Tavares |
- |
| 2010 |
Edmonton |
Edmonton |
Edmonton |
Taylor Hall |
- |
| 2011 |
Edmonton |
New Jersey++ |
Edmonton |
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins |
Adam Larsson |
| 2012 |
Columbus |
Edmonton |
Edmonton |
Nail Yakupov |
- |
| 2013 |
Florida |
Colorado |
Colorado |
TBD |
- |
* - Los Angeles could only move up a maximum of four spots (moved from 7th to 3rd)
# - San Jose was selected in the 1998 drawing, but Tampa Bay held the right to swap first round picks with the Sharks and exercised that right to go to first.
** - Chicago could only move up a maximum of four spots (moved from 8th to 4th)
*** - NY Rangers obtained Chicago's pick in a trade (via Vancouver and Tampa Bay). The Rangers selected RW Pavel Brendl fourth overall.
^ - Florida traded first overall pick to Columbus
^^ - Florida traded first overall pick to Pittsburgh
+ - NHL lockout cancelled 2004-05 season, all 30 teams were entered
++ - New Jersey could only move up a maximum of four spots (moved from 8th to 4th)
