NHL Draft Lottery open thread
The NHL's Draft Lottery takes place tonight, and the results will be announced this evening, with coverage on TSN beginning at 7:30 and the official announcement at 8:00 p.m. EST. The Ottawa Senators have a good chance of getting their seventh top-five draft choice in franchise history, and will definitely get their highest-ranked selection since drafting Jason Spezza in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft second overall.
To move up at all in the draft, the Senators will have to win the lottery. As Adnan said this afternoon, though, the Senators have a better chance at falling to sixth overall in the draft (17.2 per cent) than they do at moving up to first (just 8.1 per cent), although the odds-on favourite is remaining in fifth spot (74.7 per cent). Ottawa has won the lottery once since its advent, in 1996 when the team finished in last place in the league. They selected Chris Phillips first overall that year.
According to TSN, the NHL has held 16 draft lotteries in its history, and (putting aside the lockout-shortened year), the league's worst team has won six of 15 (40 per cent) of them, and drafted first in eight of the 15 (53.33 per cent) drafts. The league's worst team has won three straight lotteries.
Who will win the 2011 NHL Draft Lottery?
| Edmonton Oilers (25 per cent) | 67 |
| Colorado Avalanche (18.8 per cent) | 19 |
| Florida Panthers (14.2 per cent) | 3 |
| New York Islanders (10.7 per cent) | 2 |
| Ottawa Senators (8.1 per cent) | 30 |
| One of the other teams (23.2 per cent) | 46 |
