The Buffalo Sabres owned the NHLs worst record in 2014-15, thus giving them the best odds to win the 2015 NHL Draft Lottery. (Getty)
The NHL Draft lottery will emanate later tonight from the Hockey Central studio inside CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto.
This year, the Buffalo Sabres finished with the lowest winning percentage in the NHL, thus have the highest odds to win the lottery and the first-pverall selection, which are set at 20%. The next two teams with the best odds to win the lottery are the Arizona Coyotes at 13.5% and the Edmonton Oilers at 11.5%
This year’s draft is regarded as the best overall draft since 2003 because of the potential star power at the top and the amount of quality NHL talent that could be found in the later rounds. The consensus top three players in this draft are super prospect center Connor McDavid who projects closely to Sidney Crosby, Boston University center Jack Eichel who projects closely to John Tavares and Boston College defesneman Noah Hanifin who projects closely to a Drew Doughty.
Under the old format, the team that won the lottery would move up three draft slots. Under the new format, the team that wins the lottery wins the first-overall selection in June’s NHL Draft. All 14 teams that missed the playoffs can win the lottery — like in the NBA.
Here is the information for the 2015 NHL Draft Lottery:
Date: Saturday, April 18th
Time: 8 p.m. Eastern
Channel: NBC (CBC in Canada)
Location: Hockey Central studio in Toronto, Ontario
Odds:
1. Buffalo Sabres, 20 percent (200 combinations)
2. Arizona Coyotes, 13.5 percent (135 combinations)
3. Edmonton Oilers 11.5 percent (115 combinations)
4. Toronto Maple Leafs, 9.5 percent (95 combinations)
5. Carolina Hurricanes, 8.5 percent (85 combinations)
6. New Jersey Devils, 7.5 percent (75 combinations)
7. Philadelphia Flyers, 6.5 percent (65 combinations)
8. Columbus Blue Jackets, 6 percent (60 combinations)
9. San Jose Sharks, 5 percent (50 combinations)
10. Colorado Avalanche, 3.5 percent (35 combinations)
11. Florida Panthers, 3 percent (30 combinations)
12. Dallas Stars, 2.5 percent (25 combinations)
13. Los Angeles Kings, 2 percent (20 combinations)
14. Boston Bruins, 1 percent (10 combinations)
Like the NBA Lottery, balls numbered 1-to-14 are put into a lottery machine, which selects four balls from random. Those four balls are then used in a combination, providing a four-digit number combination, which will then be matched to a chart that has all possible scenarios for the 14 participants.
The odds and rest of the procedure were released on NHL.com on Friday, April 17th. The Draft Lottery will be televised on NBC just before the start of Game 2 between the Pittsburgh Penguins-New York Rangers’ first-round playoff series.