NEW YORK – The NHL will hold it’s annual draft lottery Tuesday night with five teams having a chance at landing the No. 1 pick overall. This years prize appears to be the London Knights John Tavares. The New York Islanders have the best shot after winning the lottery since they finished 30th overall in the league standings. They have a 25 per cent chance of being drawn by deputy commissioner Bill Daly. League rules stipulate that a team can only move up four positions so Tampa (18.8 per cent), Colorado (14.2 per cent), Atlanta (10.7 per cent) and Los Angeles (8.1 per cent) are the only other teams that have a chance to win the lottery. Teams can only drop one place lower than where they finished in the standings, which means the Islanders can pick no lower than second overall. If someone does not take Tavares first overall it will most likely be due to the fact that 6′ 6″ Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman was taken instead of Tavares. Of all of the draft eligable players, it appears that both players will go 1-2 in the draft. TSN in Canada has already shown who they feelings the draft order will be if the Islanders do win the lottery http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=7027 The draft lottery can be seen on the NHL network 8 pm est. Contact the author at
Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.