NHL Draft Lottery to be Held April 29th in Toronto

The National Hockey League on Tuesday announced that the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery will take place on Saturday April 29, in Toronto. 

The results of the draft lottery determining the order of the 14 non-playoff teams and the expansion Vegas Golden Knights will be announced at 8:00 PM during the live broadcast on NBC, CBC and TVA. CBC will begin their coverage of the draft lottery at 7:30 PM. 

Three drawings will take place to determine the order of the first three selections in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. The Golden Knights will have the same odds as the 28^th place finisher during the 2016-2017 season. They will be guaranteed the opportunity to make their first-round pick, within the top six of the draft. 

In order to accommodate the addition of a 15^th team in the draft lottery, the odds at winning the number one overall selection went down from what they were last season. 

The breakdown of the odds for the first drawing, giving the last place team the better the chance at winning the lottery are as follows: 

Colorado Avalanche   18.0%
Vancouver Canucks   12.1%
Vegas Golden Knights *   10.3%
Arizona Coyotes   10.3%
New Jersey Devils   8.5%
Buffalo Sabres   7.6%
Detroit Red Wings   6.7%
Dallas Stars   5.8%
Florida Panthers   5.4%
Los Angeles Kings   4.5%
Carolina Hurricanes   3.2%
Winnipeg Jets   2.7%
Philadelphia Flyers   2.2%
Tampa Bay Lightning   1.8%
New York Islanders   0.9%
* Vegas assigned same lottery odds as the team finishing the regular season in 28th place

The odds will then increase proportionately for the remaining clubs depending on which one won the previous drawing. The 12 clubs not winning any of the drawings, will be assigned their order in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft based on their inverse order of finish during the regular season.

The 2017 NHL Entry Draft will take place at the United Center in Chicago on Friday, June 23. The second through seventh rounds will take place Saturday, June 24.