How are NHL draft picks determined?

The NHL Entry Draft, initially known as the NHL amateur draft, has been a pivotal event since its inception in 1963. It is held annually, typically within a few months of the regular season's conclusion and allows NHL teams to select eligible ice hockey players to add strength to their roster. Remarkably, these players come from various leagues, including junior, collegiate, and the European leagues.

Originally, teams selected players primarily from amateur ranks, but eligibility criteria expanded over time. The draft briefly included younger prospects in 1974 amid competition with the WHA and broadened to include former professional players in 1979, leading to its renaming as the NHL Entry Draft. However, a rule implemented in 2022 put forward a limit on how much a team can move up in the draft order.

What are the new NHL draft rules?

The new NHL draft rules as of 2024 include several key changes and procedures aimed at enhancing fairness and competitive balance in the draft process:

1. Draft Lottery System: The NHL draft lottery now involves selecting only two winning balls instead of three, reducing the number of teams that can move up in the draft order. This change was implemented in 2022 to limit the advantage of repeated lottery wins for struggling teams.

2. Maximum Lottery Jump: Teams can only move up a maximum of 10 spots in the draft order if they win the lottery. This means that while any of the 16 non-playoff teams have a chance to secure the first overall pick, the maximum jump ensures that the worst team by regular-season standings is not guaranteed the top pick automatically.

3. Odds Distribution: The draft lottery odds are distributed among the 16 non-playoff teams based on their regular-season standings. The team finishing last in the standings has the highest probability (25.5%) of securing the first overall pick, followed by diminishing odds for subsequent teams based on their finishing positions.

4. Draft Eligibility and Talent Pool: The draft eligibility criteria remain largely unchanged, with players generally eligible if they turn 18 in the calendar year of the draft. The 2024 draft class features highly touted prospects like Macklin Celebrini, Artyom Levshunov, and Anton Silayev, each offering distinct skills and potential impacts for NHL teams.

How are NHL draft picks determined?

The NHL draft picks are determined through a lottery system that aims to allocate the top selections among teams that did not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This lottery includes the 16 teams with the worst regular season records. Notably, there are two separate drawings: one determines the team that receives the first overall pick, and the other determines the team that gets the second overall pick. After these top two picks are determined, the remaining teams are ordered based on their regular season standings, with picks 3 through 16 following in inverse order of their points.

Teams can move up in the draft order by as many as 10 positions compared to where they finished in the regular season standings. However, they can only move back a maximum of two spots from their original lottery odds. Additionally, a new rule implemented in 2022 restricts teams from winning the lottery more than twice within five years. This means that if a team wins the lottery twice within this timeframe, they cannot advance their draft position through the lottery until the period expires.

Each team's odds for winning the lottery are based on their regular season standings, with the team finishing last having the highest chance to win the top pick. The lottery typically takes place before the NHL Entry Draft.

Date and timing for the 2024 NHL Draft

The 2024 draft will be held at Sphere in Las Vegas with the first round commencing at 7 p.m. ET. It will air on ESPN, ESPN+, SN, and TVAS, while rounds 2-7 will be held the following day, starting at 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+, NHLN, SN, and SN1.