The lucky winner of the NHL draft lottery has first crack at OHL phenom John Tavares. (Morris Lamont/Canadian Press)It's only a couple days after the end of the NHL regular season, but rebuilding starts now for the 14 teams that missed the playoffs.
The NHL draft lottery gets underway at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, and the five teams with the worst records in the league have a chance to nab the first overall pick, likely to be John Tavares of the OHL's London Knights.
The New York Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche, Atlanta Thrashers, and Los Angeles Kings have a shot at landing the coveted first overall pick.
Thanks to their NHL-worst 26-47-9 record, the Islanders have the best chance at landing the pick, at 25 per cent. But New York should take note: in the 13 years that the draft lottery has been in place, the worst team in the league has only retained the first overall pick five times.
Lightning fans have it worse, as the team sporting the second-worst record in the NHL has never seen its name drawn in the lottery.
The three Canadian teams that missed the playoffs don't have a shot at the top pick, but they're still entered into the lottery along with every other squad carrying golf bags after the season ended. Each one has a shot to win the lottery, but can only move up four spots in the draft order.
That means Toronto, with a 4.7 per cent chance to have its name pulled, can move from seventh to third in the draft order for first-round selections.
Ottawa, at 2.7 per cent, would move to fifth from ninth. Edmonton (2.1 per cent) has a shot at the sixth pick, up from 10th.
Leafs will try to make a move
Though the Maple Leafs have no chance of landing the top spot during the lottery, that won't stop Toronto general manager Brian Burke from attempting to make a deal that moves the team higher in the order.
"We'll immediately attempt to move up," he said. "We're going to talk to everyone between us and the first pick and see what the landscape is. We're going to see what it costs and we're going to try and move up."
Burke's eye is fixed directly on Tavares, and he said that everyone on his roster (save for perhaps Luke Schenn) is available.
"No player is untradeable," he said. "Wayne Gretzky got traded."
And Burke doesn't think he even needs the first pick to get his man.
"I'm not confident every team has John Tavares as No. 1," he said.
But the NHL Central Scouting Bureau does. Tavares holds the No. 1 spot in the final North American rankings, released Tuesday afternoon, while Sweden's Victor Hedman sits atop the European prospects list.
Rounding out the top North American prospects are Matt Duchene (Brampton Battalion), Evander Kane (Vancouver Giants), Brayden Schenn (Brandon Wheat Kings, Luke's brother), and Jordan Schroeder (University of Minnesota).
Matt Hackett of the Plymouth Whalers is the top goalie on the North American list, while Robin Lehner of Goteborg, Sweden, is No. 1 on the European side.
The first round of the 2009 NHL draft takes place on June 26 in Montreal. Selections for rounds two through seven will be on June 27.
Teams entered in NHL Draft lottery, along with selection percentage:
- New York Islanders - 25.0 per cent.
- Tampa Bay - 18.8 per cent.
- Colorado - 14.2 per cent.
- Atlanta - 10.7 per cent.
- Los Angeles - 8.1 per cent.
- Phoenix - 6.2 per cent.
- Toronto - 4.7 per cent.
- Dallas - 3.6 per cent.
- Ottawa - 2.7 per cent.
- Edmonton - 2.1 per cent.
- Nashville - 1.5 per cent.
- Minnesota - 1.1 per cent.
- Buffalo - 0.8 per cent.
- Florida - 0.5 per cent.
