What you need to know about the NHL Draft Lottery

You have to go back to the 1980 draft to find the last time the Canadian had the very first choice. He had set his sights at the time on Doug Wickenheiser when many hoped instead to see him fish out Denis Savard, but that’s another story.

Changes will take effect during this 2022 lottery, which will be held at the NHL TV studios in New Jersey:

• Teams will not be able to improve their selection rank by more than 10 places in the first round.
• Teams may not win the draft lottery more than twice in a five-year period. The results of lotteries carried out before 2022 will not be taken into account.

In addition, since 2021, the lottery concerns the first two choices and no longer the first three to prevent the worst team from slipping to 4th place, as happened in 2017, 2019 and 2020. Consequently, in the worst case scenario for the Habs, Montreal could end up with the 3rd choice. Two draws will therefore be made, one for the first choice, the other for the second.

For fans of statistics, the Habs have an 18.5% chance of seeing the ping-pong ball with their number drawn first. But in reality, the team has 25.5% of getting the first choice since if the first ping-pong ball to be selected represents one of the teams ranked between 12th and 16th place, this team will not be able to beat the Canadian. . Only 11 of the 16 teams are eligible for the first selection tonight.

Are you still following?

If you’re having trouble figuring it out, it might be because the NHL changed its lottery system in 2012, 2015, 2019, 2020 (due to the season cut short by COVID-19), 2021 and 2022!

Since the beginning of the draft, in 1963, it is the Canadian who has had the most often the first choice in total (five times), even if it has been more than 40 years since he had this honor.

• 1963: Garry Monahan
• 1968: Michel Plasse
• 1969: Rejean Houle
• 1971: Guy Lafleur
• 1980: Doug Wickenheiser

But if we limit ourselves to the draft since 1980, the year in which all players aged 18 to 20 became eligible, it is the Buffalo Sabers and the Edmonton Oilers who win the palm of the first picks with four . Note that Edmonton also had its first choices in a short period, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015.

Since 1980, the Canadian has never drafted first, but has had the opportunity to choose quite early on a few occasions.

Here is an overview of the last 20 years:

• 2018, 3rd pick in the first round: Jesperi Kotkaniemi
• 2016, 9th pick in the first round: Mikhail Sergachev
• 2012, 3rd pick in the first round: Alex Galchenyuk
• 2005, 5th pick in the first round: Carey Price
• 2003, 10th pick in the first round: Andrei Kostitsyn
• 2001, 7th pick in the first round: Mike Komisarek

The history of the draft is closely linked to the city of Montreal, first of all because the very first edition took place in 1963 at the Reine-Elizabeth hotel, but also because the metropolis hosted it without interruption until 1984. Subsequently, Montreal presented the repechage four other times, in 1986, 1988, 1992, 2009 and will host it again this year.

The draft was first televised in 1984 when Radio-Canada and CBC presented the event in French and English. The first broadcast in the United States was in 1987.

And who could the CH fish out?

The very first name that could be named next July is Shane Wright, a right-handed OHL center who is compared to Nico Hischier or Mathew Barzal.

There are still three players from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League who could be drafted in the first round:

• Tristan Luneau, a Gatineau Olympiques defenseman;
• Nathan Gaucher, a center for the Quebec Remparts;
• Maveric Lamoureux, a defenseman for the Drummondville Voltigeurs.