The 2019 NHL Draft Lottery will take place on April 9 in Toronto, one day before the start of the 2019 Stanley Cup Play Offs.
The NHL Draft Lottery is usually held on a Saturday but this year it will take place on Tuesday April 9 in Toronto, the league has announced.
There are no games scheduled for that date and so the league has decided to use the date for the Draft Lottery, which will be screened live on NHL.com.
The lottery is to determine the Draft Pick order of the 15 teams who did not make the Play Offs and is a weighted system depending on the records in the regular season. The league has provided guidance on the weightings, which can be seen below:
Last year’s lottery went to form, with the Buffalo Sabres winning first pick after finishing with the worst record in the regular season. However, in 2018 the New Jersey Devils beat the odds and won first pick after finishing with the fifth worst record in the NHL.
It is not only those teams who haven’t made the Post Season who are interested in the draw. Many teams have traded draft picks for 2019 and so even if they make the Play Offs they will be keen to gain a strong lottery win. Colorado Avalanche, for example, hold the number one pick for the Ottowa Senators and so could make the Play Offs and still end up with the number one overall draft pick.
