The NHL regular season is complete and the San Jose Sharks will best shot at winning the No. 1 pick in June's NHL Draft - and Boston University centre Macklin Celebrini.
The Sharks finished last in the league with 47 points in 82 games this season and will have a 25.5 per cent chance of winning the first overall pick. The Chicago Blackhawks, who finished at the bottom of the standings last season and won the lottery to select Connor Bedard, will have the second-best odds this year at 13.5 per cent.
The Anaheim Ducks finished with seven more points than Chicago at 59 and will have an 11.5 per cent chance of winning the lottery. The Columbus Blue Jackets (9.5%) and Montreal Canadiens (8.5%) round out the top five, while the newly relocated Utah franchise will have a 7.5 per cent shot at landing a key building block in Celebrini.
"The first-overall spot is locked in tight," says TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button. "He's not Connor Bedard, he's not Auston Matthews, he's not Connor McDavid. But what I see him as is Jonathan Toews.
"(He's) a foundational franchise player. Jonathan Toews never scored 50 goals. He never had 100 points. But he was instrumental and foundational to the Chicago Blackhawks for three Stanley Cups, to Team Canada whenever he wore the Maple Leaf.
"I don't see Macklin Celebrini as a perennial 100-point scorer. I'm not even so sure that he will get 100 points (in a season). I'm not excluding him from the possibility, but everything he does in the game - from the defensive responsibility to the offensive side of things to the playmaking side of things, the goal scoring, to making everyone around him better and the organization successful - that's Macklin Celebrini."
Note: A team participating in the Draft Lottery can move up only 10 spots in the order if it wins one of the lottery draws, so only the bottom 11 seeds are eligible for the first-overall selection. While the last place team has an 18.5 per cent chance of winning the lottery for the No. 1 overall pick, the additional percentages from the five non-playoff teams that did not finish in the bottom 11 are applied to the 32nd-place team resulting in a 25.5 per cent chance to win the lottery for the No. 1 overall pick.
NHL Lottery Odds: 1 - 25.5%, 2 - 13.5%, 3 - 11.5%, 4 - 9.5%, 5 - 8.5%, 6 - 7.5%, 7 - 6.5%, 8 – 6.0%, 9 – 5.0%, 10 – 3.5%, 11 – 3.0%
Lottery Standings - Regular Season Final
| Pos. | Team | GP | PTS | PT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Jose Sharks | 82 | 47 | .287 |
| 2 | Chicago Blackhawks | 82 | 52 | .317 |
| 3 | Anaheim Ducks | 82 | 59 | .360 |
| 4 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 82 | 66 | .402 |
| 5 | Montreal Canadiens | 82 | 76 | .463 |
| 6 | Utah NHL Team | 82 | 77 | .470 |
| 7 | Ottawa Senators | 82 | 78 | .476 |
| 8 | Seattle Kraken | 82 | 81 | .494 |
| 9 | Calgary Flames | 82 | 81 | .494 |
| 10 | New Jersey Devils | 82 | 81 | .494 |
| 11 | Buffalo Sabres | 82 | 84 | .512 |
