Shane Wright was the overwhelming favourite to be the number one overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft at FanDuel for over a month.

That changed late on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after Bob McKenzie’s Draft Ranking Show went live, FanDuel took their odds to be the first overall pick off the board.

At the time, Wright to be the first overall pick was -900.

When the draft odds came back online moments later, FanDuel had Wright at -210 to go number one.

Juraj Slafkovsky, the Slovakian winger who Bob McKenzie had No. 1 in his final draft ranking, went from +450 to +130 as the second choice to be the top pick at FanDuel.

Less than one week after the unprecedented sports betting experience that was the 2022 NBA Draft, we got a major move in the NHL Draft betting market that created a unique opportunity for anybody following it.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Wednesday June 29th, 2022.

Who Will Go No. 1 In 2022 NHL Draft?

It’s important to keep Bob McKenzie’s draft ranking decision in context.

McKenzie called his final draft ranking a “photo finish”, explaining the split between Slafkovsky and Wright among the NHL scouts that he spoke with, and noting that if he had talked with a separate set of scouts then they might have arrived at a different conclusion.

You can read his full article below.

As far as the betting market reaction, everything that we saw on Tuesday went as anticipated.

At the time that the final ranking was released, Slafkovsky was sitting at +450 to be the first overall pick at FanDuel.

That number represents an 18.2 per cent implied probability, which hardly seems like an accurate representation for a player that just earned the No. 1 ranking by the slimmest of margins.

Following Bob McKenzie’s Draft Ranking Show, FanDuel moved Slafkovsky to +130 to go number one.

Slafkovsky still wasn’t the favourite, but +130 represents a 43.5 per cent implied probability, which is much more in line with his actual chances to go first overall than his previous odds.

At the same time, Wright went from -900 to -210 at FanDuel.

The story didn’t end there, though.

Keep in mind, Wright had been the consensus top pick in McKenzie’s draft ranking for the entire season, which is a sentiment that was echoed by many different voices throughout the hockey community. 

Anybody that still felt Wright is the best bet to be the first overall pick but couldn’t bet him at -900 could now get him at -210. 

At the same time, if you bet on Slafkovsky to go first overall at +450 and wanted to hedge your position, you could now do so by buying back with Wright at -210.

As it turns out, the market adjusted again as we expected.

After crashing from -900 to -210, Wright’s odds to go first overall moved to -320, which is where they currently sit.

Slafkovsky’s odds ticked up from +130 to +140.

That’s where their odds currently sit at FanDuel this morning.

Meanwhile, no other player has shorter than +2000 odds to be the first overall pick.

Those numbers more accurately represent the split that McKenzie described among the scouts that he asked about the first overall pick.

With just eight days to go before the 2022 NHL Draft, it will be very interesting to see if that market moves again over the next week.

CFL Week 4 Early Lean

If you follow the @TSN_EDGE account on Twitter and you tailed our Early Leans for Week 3, then you couldn’t lose.

Davis Sanchez, Eric Cohen and I were on the BC Lions -3 versus the Toronto Argonauts.

They won that game by 41 points.

Christian Marin played the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on the money line ahead of a 26-12 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Milt Stegall took the 9.5 points with the Edmonton Elks in a 30-23 loss to the Calgary Stampeders.

On Tuesday, Davis revealed his Early Lean on Sportscentre, taking the Ottawa Redblacks +3 against the Lions.

It didn’t take long for that number to move at FanDuel.

Right now, I’m looking at BC -2.5 with the total at 47.5.

While it’s still early, I’ve had that game circled as the most highly anticipated showdown of the early season so far.

The Lions are rolling behind Nathan Rourke and an offence that has 44+ points in back-to-back wins, but they are travelling across the country on a short week with some notable injuries.

At the same time, the Redblacks are 0-2 following consecutive losses to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but they held their own against the defending Grey Cup champions in both losses, and should benefit from home field and an extra week off to prepare following the bye.

As for my Early Lean, make sure you tune into our TSN EDGE Twitter Spaces this afternoon at 1:30 PM ET, where we will look to build off last week’s sweep and break down everything you need to know for the Week 4 games.