NHL to hold 2024 draft lottery on May 7

The National Hockey League will hold the 2024 Draft Lottery on Tuesday, May 7 with the right to draft Boston University centre Macklin Celebrini up for grabs.

"The NHL announced changes to the Draft Lottery format on March 23, 2021. Among the changes in effect since 2022 is a limit on the total number of selections (10) a team participating in the draft lottery can “move up” in the event it wins one of the lottery draws. Thus, only the top 11 seeds will be eligible to receive the first overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft," the league's release Friday said.

"The odds for the remaining teams will increase on a proportionate basis for the second lottery draw, based on which team wins the first lottery draw."

The odds for the first lottery are as follows:

*The Penguins will send their first round pick to the Sharks as a result of last summer's Erik Karlsson trade, unless it falls in the top 10, in which case Pittsburgh will have the option to send their 2025 first-round pick to San Jose instead.

With the bottom five teams ineligible, the Sharks 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 last year, 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 per cent) and Montreal Canadiens (8.5 per cent) 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 their first draft.

"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."