Selection Order and Draft Lottery
The selection order in the Entry Draft is determined by a combination of lottery, regular season standing, and playoff results. However, teams are permitted to trade draft picks. In all cases, the team considered is the original holder of the draft pick, not a team which may have acquired the pick via a trade or other means. It has been claimed that the lottery system was introduced after the Ottawa Senators were suspected of having deliberately lost games in order to draft Alexandre Daigle in 1993.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the 14 NHL teams not qualifying for the playoffs are entered in a weighted lottery to determine the initial draft picks in the first round, seeded according to regular season standing. The 30th-place team has the best chance of winning the lottery while the 29th-place team has a 18.8% chance of winning, with odds diminishing to a 0.5% chance for the 17th-place team (such that the odds of the 17th-place team picking in what would be its non-lottery order of 14th are 99.5%). A single selection from the lottery pool is made, with the winning team improving its draft position by up to four places, and no team dropping more than one place. Therefore, only the 26th through 30th place teams are eligible to receive the first overall draft pick. Consequently, the 30th place team's combined chance of retaining the first overall pick or "winning" it is 48.2% and if that team does not get the first pick it is guaranteed to pick second. The 26th place team could either pick first (8.1% chance), fifth (74.7% chance), or sixth (17.2% chance).
The remaining order is determined by the Stanley Cup playoff results. Whichever team wins the Stanley Cup is awarded the 30th and last pick, while the runner-up is given the 29th pick. The teams eliminated in the conference finals are awarded the 28th and 27th picks, with the 28th pick going to the team with the better regular season record. Remaining division winners, then the rest of the field are ranked next, filling in the 26th through 15th picks. In both cases, better records result in later picks.
When teams lose their rights to a first round draft choice, because that player was not signed to a contract and consequently re-entered the entry draft or became an unrestricted free agent, they are awarded a compensatory draft pick. This selection will be the same numerical choice as the first round draft pick who was not signed, but in the second round. For example, if a team cannot sign the seventh overall first round draft choice, it will receive the seventh pick in the second round of the next draft as compensation.
Read more about this topic: NHL Entry Draft
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