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NHL Draft Lottery goes Friday night at 8 p.m. ET. This year’s lottery is taking place at the @NHLNetwork studios in NJ and @KathrynTappen of @NHLonNBCSports will host the half-hour show. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly will be live in studio.
Bettman will oversee the lottery ball drawing. It will be scrutinized by an auditor from Ernst and Young. Because of Covid-19 concerns, no NHL club reps will be in sequestered lottery drawing area. A full video of the ping pong ball drawing will be posted online after show ends.
Top draft prospect Alexis Lafreniere will be part of the 30-minute show, remotely from his home in Quebec. Community heroes/front-line workers from each of the 6 known NHL clubs in the lottery will remotely act as cheering sections for their hometown teams.
This, of course, is a lottery like no other. Ultimately, there are 15 non-playoff teams but OTT owns SJ’s first pick, so only 14 teams hold the 15 picks. The Nos. 1, 2 and 3 picks, as usual, are available to be won in the lottery. But we only know the identity of 6 teams.
The 6 teams and their % odds are: 1. DET 18.5; 2. OTT 13.5; 3. OTT (SJ) 11.5; 4. LA 9.5; 5. ANA 8.5; 6. NJ 7.5; 7. BUF 6.5. OTT obviously, with a combined 25 % chance, has best odds. Remaining odds: Team A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H have respective 6, 5, 3.5, 3, 2.5, 2, 1.5, 1 % cha
If none of the 8 alpha-designated unknown teams (those which lose the 2020 play-in qualifier) win a top-three overall pick, Bill Daly’s countdown/flipping of cards will start at No. 7.
If one of the 8 unknown teams gets a top-three pick, the countdown/flip starts at 8.
If one of the 8 unknown teams gets a top-three pick, the countdown/flip starts at 8.
If 2 of 8 unknown teams win a top-three pick in the draw, countdown/flipping starts at No. 9.
If 3 of 8 unknown teams win all three top picks, well, there won’t be much of a countdown. New top three would be unknown until a second draft lottery after the play-in qualifier.
If 3 of 8 unknown teams win all three top picks, well, there won’t be much of a countdown. New top three would be unknown until a second draft lottery after the play-in qualifier.
In that latter scenario, where all three top picks go to unknown teams, picks 4 thru 10 would be the same ordering of the 6 known teams pre-lottery. That is, DET, OTT, OTT, LA, ANA, NJD and BUF.
The half-hour Draft Lottery Show will air in the 
on @NBCSN at 8 p.m. ET. Immediately following, at 8:30 p.m. ET on @NBCSN, @liam_mchugh along with Keith Jones and Patrick Sharp will have a half-hour show to review the lottery and preview potential matchups for RTP.
on @NBCSN at 8 p.m. ET. Immediately following, at 8:30 p.m. ET on @NBCSN, @liam_mchugh along with Keith Jones and Patrick Sharp will have a half-hour show to review the lottery and preview potential matchups for RTP.
At the very least, after tomorrow night’s draft lottery, we will know the draft slots for the six known teams: DET, OTT (2), LA, ANA, NJ and BUF. There’s a 75.5 % chance we will know which team is picking No. 1 overall.
If you’d like to read more on the draft, check out @travisyost story that deep dives into OTT’s chances. If you like that, you can always ask Travis what he had for lunch or what he’s eating for dinner because his food takes are, uh, quite something: http://tsn.ca/1.1489364
If you’d like to get further acquainted with the 2020 NHL draft prospects, you can get a lot of information here: https://twitter.com/tsnhockey/status/1275514956541308930?s=21 https://twitter.com/tsnhockey/status/1275514956541308930
BTW, @tsnjamesduthie and I will be previewing the draft lottery on early editions of SportsCentre tomorrow and reviewing the results on later editions of SC. As always, @TSN_Sports is your go-to network for draft coverage. Check it all out here: https://twitter.com/tsnhockey/status/1276243627841388549?s=21 https://twitter.com/tsnhockey/status/1276243627841388549
One more BTW, the NHL obviously has a plan what would happen to the draft lottery/order of selection in the event the 2019-20 RTP doesn’t materialize but has not yet shared it with the member clubs. So for those asking what would happen, my answer right now is, “I don’t know.”
But I did have an interesting conversation with a GM on how he feels it should be done — all 31 teams in the mix for No. 1, a la 2005 and the Sidney Crosby draft. Interesting perspective, if you think about it. Here’s why:
If there’s no conclusion to 2019-20, there’s no reward for any team. No President’s Trophy. No home ice advantage in playoffs. No Stanley Cup. It’s almost as if the season never took place because, well, in a manner of speaking, it didn’t.
Show me a team that tangibly benefited more than any other or one which was tangibly penalized more than any other. Not saying equal No. 1 odds for all 31 teams, but precedent (2005) is there for league-wide lottery in a season with no regular season or playoff champion(s).
And I’m not saying the NHL will do that or is even planning to do it, but at least one NHL GM believes that’s how it should be done. 
Some other GMs I talked to think the easy fix in the event of no RTP is let the results of Friday’s draft lottery stand and just plug in the teams ranked 8 to 15 based on points percentage at the pause. The thing is, they don’t know. NHL obviously focusing on concluding 2019-20.
