NHL Draft Drawing Overview

The Draft Drawing is a weighted system to give the teams that finished with the fewest points during the regular season the greatest chance of having their combination selected. It involves Clubs that do not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, or the Clubs that acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff clubs.

Fourteen balls, numbered 1 to 14, are placed in a lottery machine. The machine expels four balls, forming a series of numbers. The four-digit series resulting from the expulsion of the balls is matched against a probability chart that divides the possible combinations among the 14 participating clubs.

Per NHL rules, the Club selected in the Draft Drawing may not move up more than four positions in the draft order. Thus, the only Clubs with the opportunity to receive the first overall selection are the five teams with the lowest regular-season point totals, or the Clubs that acquired an eligible Club’s first-round draft pick. No club will move down more than one position as a result of the Draft Drawing.

The percentage chance of a team being selected in the Draft Drawing:

Rank at End of Regular Season	Percentage of Selection
30th	25.0%
29th	18.8%
28th	14.2%
27th	10.7%
26th	8.1%
25th	6.2%
24th	4.7%
23rd	3.6%
22nd	2.7%
21st	2.1%
20th	1.5%
19th	1.1%
18th	0.8%
17th	0.5%

Results of Previous Draft Drawings

Year	Selected	Effect On Draft Order	Player Selected
1995	Los Angeles	Moved from 7th to 3rd	D Aki Berg
1996	Ottawa	Retained 1st selection	D Chris Phillips
1997	Boston	Retained 1st selection	C Joe Thornton
1998	Tampa Bay	Moved from 3rd to 1st via trades	C Vincent Lecavalier
1999	Chicago	Moved from 8th to 4th	RW Pavel Brendl *
2000	NY Islanders	Moved from 5th to 1st	G Rick DiPietro
2001	Atlanta	Moved from 3rd to 1st	LW Ilya Kovalchuk
2002	Florida	Moved from 3rd to 1st	LW Rick Nash **
2003	Florida	Moved from 4th to 1st	G Marc-Andre Fleury ***
2004	Washington	Moved from 3rd to 1st	LW Alex Ovechkin
2005	Pittsburgh	n/a	C Sidney Crosby
2006	St. Louis	Retained 1st selection	D Erik Johnson
2007	Chicago	Moved from 5th to 1st	RW Patrick Kane
2008	Tampa Bay	Retained 1st selection	C Steven Stamkos
2009	NY Islanders	Retained 1st selection	C John Tavares
2010	Edmonton	Retained 1st selection	LW Taylor Hall
2011	New Jersey	Moved from 8th to 4th	D Adam Larsson
2012	edmonton	Moved from 2nd to 1st	TBD

* NY Rangers obtained Chicago's pick in a trade (via Vancouver and Tampa Bay). The Rangers selected RW Pavel Brendl fourth overall.

** Columbus obtained Florida's pick in a trade. The Blue Jackets selected LW Rick Nash first overall
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*** Pittsburgh obtained Florida's pick in a trade. The Penguins selected G Marc-Andre Fleury first overall.