The Edmonton Oilers’ luck ran out at the NHL Draft Lottery; the team will not pick first overall for the fifth time in seven years.
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Winning the real thing Saturday night felt a whole lot better, the team president acknowledged.
On the other hand, though, the Leafs picking first overall?
“I don’t know if it changes the timetable, but it certainly helps, ” Shanahan said, referring to his plans to overhaul a franchise that has made the playoffs just once in the past 11 years.
“If you really felt strongly about having a defenseman and you were at five or six and wanted to trade down a couple of spots, I guess you’d obviously get something to do that” McKenzie said.
The Winnipeg Jets, slated to pick sixth, moved up to the top three. The Columbus Blue Jackets did the same and will have the No. 3 overall selection Jun 24-25 when the draft is held in Buffalo.
The NHL also lowered the odds of success for the teams with the fewest points in the regular season.
After the draft, Anthony LeBlanc remarked that the Arizona Coyotes, “would’ve liked to have received the #1 pick but we’re going into preparing for this draft with two very good 1st round picks”.
The NHL performed three separate lotteries for the first-, second- and third-overall picks for the first time this year. And the Canucks dropped from third to fifth.
He would presumably fill Toronto’s long-term No. 1 centre spot, plugged by less than ideal options following the departure of long-time team captain Mats Sundin. In basketball, all fifteen non-playoff teams are placed in order via lottery selection.
“I think there will be a good [Maple Leafs] presence in Buffalo at the draft”, Shanahan said.
“We earned this the hard way”, was how Shanahan put it on Saturday.
Despite what McKenzie said on the top-six players all being forwards, the Canucks would get an extremely talented D-man in the top six as well. Minnesota, at least, made two trips to the final when the Stars were in 1981 and again 10 years later. The hiring of general manager Lou Lamoriello and coach Mike Babcock. That club could fall as low as fourth overall.
In addition to the possibility of adding Matthews to a stable of prospects that already includes Mitchell Marner of the London Knights and Toronto Marlies forward William Nylander among others, the Maple Leafs will need to make some of its secondary picks this year count.
Matthews called it both “nerve-racking” and “exciting” to watch the lottery unfold from Helsinki, where he is practicing with Team USA. “I have a lot of mixed emotions but am excited to be part of it. I’m excited and relieved and it’s nice to have clarity”. “Nothing’s set in stone. It’s still a ways away from the draft”.
“I think he’s a (NHL) winger”. The Maple Leafs will also do their due dilligence on Finnish scorers Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi. It was the nationally-televised NHL draft lottery on Saturday night and the Jets weren’t the big winners but they were pretty close.
Regardless of who the Leafs pick, this much is clear – they bottomed out this season with the intention of getting a high draft pick and, while the process was very painful at times, everything worked out in the end.
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The Oilers didn’t finish at the bottom of the National Hockey League past year but were still awarded the No. 1 pick by the lottery.
