NHL Draft Lottery 2024 Announced for May 7; Sharks Have Top Odds for No. 1 Pick
April 26, 2024
The 2024 NFL Draft Lottery will take place on Tuesday, May 7.
The time of the event will be announced next week, the NHL announced Friday.
The lottery will take place at the NHL Network studio in Secaucus, New Jersey. It will be broadcast on ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports.
The San Jose Sharks have an 18.5 percent chance of receiving the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft.
The Chicago Blackhawks (13.5 percent) and Anaheim Ducks (11.5 percent) also have high odds heading into the lottery.
The 2024 NHL Draft will begin June 28 in Las Vegas.
Teams will first be able to evaluate prospects at the 2024 NHL Scouting Combine, which begins June 2 in Buffalo.
The lottery will determine the order of the top 16 picks, comprised of the teams who did not qualify for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Only the teams that finished in the bottom 11 of the 2023-24 NHL standings are eligible to receive the first overall pick, as clubs can move up a maximum of 10 places in the lottery.
The official order of the odds to be selected first in the lottery are as follows, according to the NHL:
- San Jose Sharks: 18.5%
- Chicago Blackhawks: 13.5%
- Anaheim Ducks: 11.5%
- Columbus Blue Jackets: 9.5%
- Montreal Canadiens: 8.5%
- Utah: 7.5%
- Ottawa Senators: 6.5%
- Seattle Kraken: 6.0%
- Calgary Flames: 5.0%
- New Jersey Devils: 3.5%
- Buffalo Sabres: 3.5%
- Philadelphia Flyers: 2.5%
- Minnesota Wild: 2.0%
- Pittsburgh Penguins: 1.5%
- Detroit Red Wings: 0.5%
- St. Louis Blues: 0.5%
As noted above, the Flyers, Wild, Penguins, Red Wings and Blues will not be eligible to receive the No. 1 pick, even if selected first.
The Penguins are currently set to transfer their first-round pick to the San Jose Sharks as part of their 2023 trade for defenseman Erik Karlsson. If they receive a top-ten pick in the lottery, however, Pittsburgh could choose to keep the 2024 selection and offer San Jose a 2025 first-rounder instead.
The pick previously held by the Arizona Coyotes will now transfer to the NHL's newest franchise in Salt Lake City, where the Coyotes will relocate for the 2024-25 season.
The Sharks, Blackhawks, Ducks, Blue Jackets, Canadiens, Senators, Kraken, Flames, Devils, Sabres and as-yet unnamed Utah team will be in the running to receive the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft and select star Boston University center Macklin Celebrini.
The Blackhawks have the chance to earn the top pick two seasons in a row after selecting Connor Bedard at the top of last year's draft, but they would receive a future draft penalty for doing so.
The lottery rules established by the NHL in 2021 state that no team can win the lottery more than twice in a five-year period, so drafting Celebrini would leave Chicago without a shot at another No. 1 pick until 2028.