April’s National Hockey League Draft Lottery will be the first to give all 14 teams who fail to reach the playoffs a chance at landing the top pick in the NHL draft under new rules announced Monday.
Previously, only the five teams with the fewest points in the NHL standings during the regular season had a chance to claim the top pick as rules dictated no club could jump more than four spots as a result of the lottery.
The weighted system of deciding the order in which teams can select unclaimed new talent did not change the odds, however, for teams obtaining the No. 1 pick, meaning the team with the worst record still has a 1-in-4 chance to claim the prized selection.
No club will be dumped down more than one spot as a result of the lottery.
The lottery will be staged April 29 with the seven-round NHL Draft set for June 30.
The team with the second-worst NHL record have an 18.8 percent chance at the top pick, the third-worst team’s odds at 14.2 and the fourth-worst at 10.7 and so on down to the team which came closest to making the 16-team NHL playoffs but failed having only a .5 percent hope of landing the top selection.
The Edmonton Oilers have had the top pick in the past three NHL Drafts.
NHL's new draft lottery rules give more clubs top pick hope
