NHL Draft Lottery: Canadiens To Get First Overall Selection, Senators Remain in Seventh Overall
Coveted Centre Most Likely Headed to Montreal
The Montreal Canadiens had one of the wildest roller coasters a team has seen in recent seasons. They went from making it to the Cup Finals to becoming the first team in league history to finish 32nd overall. Unlike the Senators, when they suffered through a terrible season, they were rewarded. They went into the draft with the highest odds to pick first overall and that is exactly what they got.
The New Jersey Devils won the honours for the second overall pick moving them from their previous fifth place position. This bumped the Arizona Coyotes to third, Seattle Kraken to fourth and the Philadelphia Flyers to fifth. The Ottawa Senators remain at seventh place where they finished the season.
The 2022 NHL draft will take place in Montreal where it is expected that Shane Wright will be picked first overall to what looks to be the home crowd.
While the Sens have gotten lucky with Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle in recent drafts, Pierre Dorion has been known to make less than conventional picks. The question for the Sens now is do they keep the 7th overall pick or do they use it as trade bait to get immediate help for the team?
The Sens have never had the 7th overall pick before. They took Brian Lee and Jared Cowen 9th overall in the 2005 and 2009 drafts They also took Mika Zibanejad 6th overall in the 2011 draft. Let’s hope number 7 brings us the the Tkachuk fortunes.
The updated NHL draft rankings are as follows:
Results from the 2022 #NHLDraft Lottery, which saw the @CanadiensMTL retain the No. 1 pick and the @NJDevils move from fifth to second overall in July.#NHLStats and more information on the Draft Lottery: https://t.co/J6BrDTSKDs pic.twitter.com/UQDfGAK0PL
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 10, 2022
Stay tuned for extensive draft coverage in the weeks ahead!