Sharks have best odds to receive No. 1 pick in NHL draft lottery

The Associated Press

· Posted: Apr 29, 2025 5:25 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

The NHL volition clasp its draught lottery adjacent Monday with the San Jose Sharks holding the champion accidental of getting the apical prime for a 2nd consecutive season.

The lottery to find the apical 16 picks successful the June draught volition beryllium held astatine the NHL Network's workplace successful New Jersey and broadcast connected ESPN.

The lottery is conducted successful 2 phases with the archetypal to find the No. 1 prime and the 2nd to find the No. 2 pick. Teams tin lone determination up 10 spots successful the order, meaning lone the bottommost 11 teams person a accidental astatine the archetypal pick.

This draught is not considered to beryllium 1 of the stronger ones successful caller years astatine the apical with defenseman Matthew Schaefer and centre Michael Misa of the Ontario Hockey League ranked by the league's cardinal scouting bureau arsenic the apical 2 North American skaters available.

The Sharks won the lottery past twelvemonth and picked Macklin Celebrini archetypal overall. Celebrini had 25 goals and 38 assists successful an awesome rookie play but San Jose inactive finished with the worst grounds successful the NHL.

That gives the Sharks a 25.5% accidental of getting the No. 1 prime again, either by winning the lottery oregon if the teams successful the 12th done 16th spots triumph and can't determination up to No. 1.

Chicago has the second-best likelihood astatine 13.5 per cent, followed by Nashville astatine 11.5, Philadelphia astatine 9.5 and Boston astatine 8.5. Chicago won the lottery successful 2023 and picked Connor Bedard with the archetypal pick.