Welcome friends, to the NHL Draft Lottery. Our final look at how early our early drafting Kraken will be drafting early.
Just the Facts:
Where it is: NHL Network studios in New Jersey.
What it is: The official drawing of the NHL Draft Lottery
When is it: 4pm Pacific!
Can I watch it?: Sure, if you can find NHL Network? You can watch it. Alternatively, you can follow along in this thread!
Alternatively, if you can get to the Community Iceplex at Northgate Station, you can watch it live from the 32 Bar & Grill!
The Lottery itself
The Draft Lottery is generally not a terribly exciting show if you’re a team that isn’t expecting to get the first overall pick. If you happen to have skin in the game like we do, then the excitement happens!
The rules are easy enough to follow:
The Odds so far
Zaiem did an excellent job of discussing that over here in the primer!
Who’s available at that point in the draft?
While Slafkovsky and Wright will probably be out of hand, which is a pity, they’re both real good, there’s some really interesting talent here that an expansion team could really have fun building around.
Simon Nemec – Defenseman, HK Nitra in Slovak Extraliga
Nemec is 6’1 and a few pounds shy of 200 pounds, but he plays a man’s game. Literally, he’s the youngest player on pro-level HK Nitra in his home country. He and HK Nitra got all the way to the Extraliga finals, but couldn’t seal the deal, and fell in seven games to eventual winners Bratislava.
Logan Cooley – Center, US Development Program (Committed to Minnesota)
Cooley went to the U18 World Championships this year and has been the complete package for the USA: Anything you need him to do? He can do it. His blistering of the competition at the U18 worlds has made cruising into the knockout rounds a breeze for the Americans, but he got a cold taste of reality when the Swedes knocked out the Americans in the gold medal game. He finished his tournament with 10 points.
Matthew Savoie – Center, Winnipeg ICE in Western Hockey League (Canadian Junior)
Savoie may not be very tall, but he’s a skilled young man. He can carve defenses with some impressive playmaking and unreal stickhandling: At the CHL’s top prospects game, he aced several of the big puck-handling drills and then turned right around and led his Winnipeg ICE (and yes, you have to write it out like that. It’s like A Tribe Called Quest, I guess.) to the playoffs, where they are currently stealing and eating the Moose Jaw Warriors’ lunch, just as they did to their first round competition.
Joakim Kemell – Winger, JYP in Finnish Liiga
So you’d think a 17 year old would have trouble in a man’s league…But Kemell is a one man highlight reel, ending up 4th on Jyväskylän Palloilijat (Or JYP for short)’s goalscoring list. He loves to shoot the puck, and he loves using some high-end offensive creativity to open up lanes for him to continue shooting the puck. Tragically, he’s not playing any playoff hockey as JYP was uh…bad. Very not good. A 17 year old was their highlight in a professional league.
David Jiricek – Defenseman, HC Skoda Plzen in Czech Extraliga
Jiricek had a terrible knee injury that limited his ability to play a full season for Plzen, and that’s a shame because otherwise he was playing like a man possessed, and scared the hell out of anybody who tried forechecking against him because being 6’3 and able to move like he does is a bad time for everybody in his way.
And that’s what you need to know! Let’s get unreasonably excited/furious about placards and balls coming out of a tube on Davy Jones Locker Room dot com!
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