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Includes 2026 NHL Draft Class Many great playersincluding Penn State left wing Gavin McKenna, Frolunda HC forward Ivar Stenberg and Prince George Cougars defenseman Carson Carrels.
But the No. 1 pick simply doesn’t go with the team Worst regular season record. Instead, a lottery will determine the final order of the first 16 picks of the first round.
Tune in to watch Tuesday night’s action (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), and read on for more intel on how it all works, including which teams have the best shot at landing the No. 1 pick.
Why is there a draft lottery?
A lottery gives multiple non-playoff teams the chance to get the No. 1 pick — an important consideration Premium value for first-round picks. In theory, it also mitigates any perception that certain teams aren’t doing their best to field competitive lineups (to put it charitably), since losing the most games doesn’t guarantee that No. 1 pick.
Plus, it adds some extra excitement for half the league’s fan base between the end of the regular season and the draft lottery.
How does the real lottery work?
A set of 14 ping-pong balls Placed in a lottery machinewhich allows 1,001 combinations. Each team in the lottery is assigned a set of random four-number combinations. The worse a team’s record, the more combinations are allocated; So the team with the worst record last season Vancouver Canucks185, which represents an 18.5% chance of winning the first lottery draw.
An accounting firm runs the process for the league, and it keeps tabs on which teams align with each combination; There is also a combination that has been deleted from the proceedings (making it 1,000 instead of 1,001).
The first draw of the ping-pong ball determines the No. 1 pick based on the determined combination. But since a set of rules changes in 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots in the pecking order; So, if a team in spots 12-16 wins the first draw, they move up accordingly, and the team lowest in the standings (in this year’s case, the Canucks) moves to No. 1.
Then there is a second draw to determine the next place, using the same rules as the first. Likewise, a team in spots No. 13-16 can still only move up 10 slots, so they move up accordingly and the next lowest available team in the standings moves up to No. 2.
Regardless of which team wins the draft lottery draw, picks in rounds 2–7 are in reverse order of final position after the playoffs.
A special wrinkle that began in 2025 and will continue into 2026: the draws will happen live on air, meaning fans can watch all the drama unfold in real time.
Which teams have the best chance of winning the draw this year?
Here’s the full list of each club’s draft lottery prospects and the number of combinations (out of 1,000) — akin to “lottery tickets” — that they have:
* Note: The Toronto Maple Leafs‘Pick will be sent Boston Bruins Brandon Carlo was sent to Toronto as part of the 2025 trade. if not It ranks in the top five. In this case, the Maple Leafs would send their 2027 or 2028 first-round pick to the Bruins.
Any other rules I need to know?
As part of the 2021 lottery rule changes, the NHL also mandated that a team cannot win the lottery more than twice in a five-year span (starting with the 2022 lottery).
D New York Islanders won the lottery last year, so if they do it again this year, they will be ineligible to do so until 2030.
