Soon, one of the biggest questions in hockey will have an answer.
That day will come on April 18 when the NHL draft lottery is held to determine which team will have the right to draft sensational teenager Connor McDavid of the OHL Erie Otters at the NHL draft in June, sources tell Sportsnet.
The draft lottery will take place in Toronto and will be broadcast during a Hockey Night in Canada playoff show.
McDavid, a centre from Newmarket, Ont., is the most heralded player available for the NHL draft since Sidney Crosby a decade ago, and is the consensus No. 1 pick this year. The 18-year-old had 120 points in only 47 games this season. He missed part of the season with a broken hand and spent time with the Canadian national junior team, which won a gold medal at the 2015 World Junior Championships held in Toronto and Montreal.
All 14 teams that miss the post-season will participate in the draft lottery, with the team that finishes last – currently the Buffalo Sabres – owning a 20 per cent chance to win the lottery, and McDavid. The second worst team will have a 13.5 per cent chance of winning.
The lottery odds actually changed this year, with the bottom four teams getting worse odds and other 10 teams better odds than in previous years. This year, the non-playoff team with the best record (or the team that has traded for that team’s pick) will have a 1 per cent chance of winning the lottery.
If a team other than the club with the 30th best record wins, that team moves to the first slot, and the other teams bump back one position.
Other top prospects include defenceman Noah Hanifin (Boston College), centre Jack Eichel (Boston University), centre Dylan Strome (Erie Otters), winger Lawson Crouse (Kingston) and rearguard Ivan Provorov (Brandon).
The draft will be held June 26-27 in Sunrise, Fla. Next year, the lottery will be adjusted again to determine the top three drafting positions, not just the No. 1 pick.
