The Draft Lottery Is Next Friday!

Can’t miss a good Draft Lottery.

This season has been anything but ordinary, and the draft lottery will continue along that line. The National Hockey League is hoping to get training camp started in a little over three weeks to conclude the remainder of the 2019-20 NHL season. The Oilers last played a game on March 11th when they hosted the Winnipeg Jets at home. Since then, COVID-19 has kept most major sports in the background of most people’s minds.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In nine days, the NHL will run the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery™, something Oiler fans know all too well from the last decade. Normally if you finish fifth in your conference, you’re not eligible to win the first overall pick. Like everything else, this year is different.

So different, that we don’t even know all the teams who are eligible to win it.

nhl.com

There are three drawings next Friday to determine the top three picks. Ottawa looking pretty good with the second and third best chances to win the first overall pick, Detroit was pretty terrible this year, all the way down to Buffalo at seventh overall. These 7 teams aren’t playing in the expanded 24 team playoffs this year, and it would be just fine by me if any one of these seven teams won the top 3 picks.

If one of the blank “Teams” (whether they be A through H) are one of the three teams selected, the pick will be awarded to one of the teams that fails to advance from the “play-in”, which will happen sometime in August. Of course. IF one of the unnamed teams is selected, they’ll be assigned to those grey boxes based on their win percentage and THEN, they’ll be totally randomized.

Makes sense, right? Ugh. Will having Gary Bettman explain it better? Maybe?

Theoretically, the Oilers could pick first overall if the first pick is awarded to one of the unpicked teams and the Oilers get bounced by Chicago in the play-in round.

Let’s not even go there. Next Friday!