NHL Announces Draft Lottery Will Take Place on April 9th

With the Red Wings officially eliminated from the playoffs with Tuesday’s loss to Montreal, all attention has turned toward the NHL Draft. Elliotte Friedman has reported that the NHL Draft Lottery will take place on April 9th, which is the day before the NHL playoffs start.

In a press release on NHL.com, the NHL announced the date of the draft lottery which will take place in Toronto. The event will be shown live on Sportsnet, NBCSN, and  TVA Sports during a one hour show beginning at 8 pm ET.  As detailed in a chart, the lottery odds are the same as last year’s. The draft lottery contains three separate drawings for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall with spots 4-15 assigned in the inverse order of the regular season standings.

If the Wings pick 1st or 2nd, it would be their highest pick since Keith Primeau who went 3rd overall in 1990. The Wings last 1st overall pick was Joe Murphy in 1986.

Some of the names you’ll hear in consideration for being drafted in the top 3 are locks Jack Hughes, a center with the US National Development Program’s U18 team and Finnish winger Kaapo Kakko, who plays for TPS in the Finnish Liiga. Other names who will be battling it out for top 5 spots are Canadian center Dylan Cozens from the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League (WHL), Russian winger Vasili Podkolzin who plays for SKA-1946 St. Petersburg of the MHL, and Canadian defenseman Bowen Byram, who plays for the Vancouver Giants of the WHL.