NEW YORK -- The National Hockey League announced today the 2025 NHL Draft Lottery will be held on Monday, May 5, at NHL Network’s Secaucus, N.J., studio. The event will be broadcast on ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports, at a time to be announced later this week.
The 2025 NHL Draft Lottery will determine the order of selection for the first 16 picks in the first round of the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft. Participants are all teams that did not qualify for the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs (or the teams that have acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff teams).
The Lottery will be conducted in two phases, the first to determine the first overall pick in the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft and the second to determine the second overall pick. There is a limit on the total number of selections (10) a team participating in the Draft Lottery can “move up” in the event it wins one of the Lottery Draws. Thus, only the top 11 seeds will be eligible to receive the first overall Draft pick.