The results of the NHL's entry draft lottery, and who gets the No. 1 overall pick, will be carried exclusively on TSN in a special half-hour show on Friday at 4 p.m. (EST).
TSN, which is the rightsholder for the 2005 NHL entry draft in Ottawa on July 30, will carry the lottery event live from New York, where the NHL board of governors will be meeting to ratify the new collective bargaining agreement, approve rule changes for the 2005-06 season and conduct the lottery to determine the order of selection for the entire draft.
The big prize, of course, is talented youngster Sidney Crosby of the Rimouski Oceanic, whose scoring exploits have made him the clear No. 1 choice and a potential franchise player.
Every team in the NHL has a shot at winning that first overall pick in a slightly weighted lottery.
Four teams (Buffalo, Columbus, the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh) have three balls in the lottery. Ten teams (Anaheim, Atlanta, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, Phoenix) have two balls in the drum. The remaining 16 teams (Boston, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, New Jersy, NY Islanders, Ottawa, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington) have one.
The team that gets the first pick overall won't pick again until 60th overall. The team that gets the 30th pick, at the end of the first round, gets the first pick (31st overall) in the second round in a "snake" draft system.
The anticipation of who'll pick first overall, and win the right to draft Crosby, is higher than it has ever been in NHL history.
TSN, the League's Canadian cable partner, will produce and televise the special half -hour show. RDS, the NHL's exclusive French-language partner, and the NHL Network also will telecast the draft drawing to the rest of Canada.