Red Wings stay put in NHL Draft lottery and will have eighth pick overall


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The Detroit Red Wings did not move up in Tuesday’s National Hockey League Draft lottery, but the club didn’t drop any further in the order.

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The Red Wings had a six per cent chance of grabbing the first pick in the draft, which ultimately went to the Montreal Canadiens, and a 6.4 per cent chance of grabbing the second spot, but stayed at No. 8 after a 32-40- 10 seasons.

The Red Wings are part of the reason there were a few tweaks in the lottery process. In 2019, the Spitfires had the worst record in the NHL by 23 points after the 2019-20 season, but dropped to fourth in the draft. The New York Rangers, who would have picked 14th in the draft, jumped to the No. 1 spot.

Under the new rules, teams were restricted from moving up more than 10 spots in this year’s draft. Tuesday’s lottery only determined the top two picks, and not three as in previous years, with clubs slotted in finishing order from the regular season after that.

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As well, starting this year, no team can win the lottery twice in five years.

In the three previous drafts under Red Wings’ general manager Steve Yzerman, the club selected Moritz Seider sixth overall in 2019 after falling back from fourth in the lottery. The club got Lucas Raymond in 2020 after falling from to fourth and the Red Wings, who remained sixth overall last year, took Swedish defenseman Simon Edvinsson.

The Red Wings have not picked this late in the draft since 2017 when the club got center Michael Rasmussen with the ninth pick overall after dropping from the seventh slot in the lottery.

The New Jersey Devils were the only team to move up in Tuesday’s lottery going from the fifth slot to the second spot overall, which pushed Arizona back a spot to three, Seattle back a spot to four and Philadelphia back a spot to fifth.

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Detroit has not picked eighth overall since 1985 when the Red Wings selected forward Brent Fedyk. He appeared in just 162 games over parts of five seasons with the team and went on to play for Philadelphia, Dallas and the Rangers.

The first round of this year’s draft is set for July 7 in Montreal with the final six rounds of the seven-round draft set for July 8.

The Red Wings hold 10 selections in this year’s draft. The only pick Detroit is missing from its collection is a sixth-round pick, which went to Tampa Bay for Mitchell Stephens.

Detroit has an extra second-round pick from Washington as part of last year’s trade for Anthony Mantha. The club has Colorado’s fourth-round pick, which was part of the trade for defenseman Patrik Nemeth. Detroit also has an extra fourth-round pick from Vegas, which sent the selection to Detroit in 2020 for a fifth-round pick. The Red Wings also have a seventh-round pick from the Los Angeles Kings, which was acquired for defenseman Troy Stecher.

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