NHL Draft Lottery to be held live on TV, will be 'really compelling' for fans

The 2025 NHL Draft Lottery television broadcast will do more than reveal the order of selection for the top 16 picks in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft. It will reveal the raw drama as the order is determined.

Instead of watching a countdown from 16 to 1 after the lottery balls have been drawn behind the scenes, fans will watch on live TV as the lottery balls are drawn at NHL Network's studio in Secaucus, New Jersey, on Monday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS). It's the first time in the 30-year-history of the NHL Draft Lottery that the drawing will be shown live in-studio.

It can appear complicated. But the bottom line is this: The four-number combinations for each team are posted on NHL.com (see above), and you'll be able to follow along as the balls pop out of the machine one by one, tension building until the final ball alters NHL history.

"There will be anticipation like you've never seen in a draft lottery, and I truly believe we're the first ones in any league to try this," said Steve Mayer, NHL president of content and events. "We're always looking to be innovative -- and not innovative for the sake of doing it. We've really thought this through and think it's going to be really compelling for our fans."

The NHL, like other professional sports leagues, holds a draft lottery to discourage teams from tanking for the No. 1 pick in the draft. The NHL Board of Governors has refined it over the years, creating a fair, transparent process but with complex, nuanced rules.

How do you turn that into a TV show that is fun to watch for fans?

The NHL used to hold the draft lottery in a separate room at NHL Network's studio right before the TV broadcast. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman would preside over the draw, which would be overseen by the accounting firm Ernst & Young and observed by the media.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly would reveal the order of selection on the TV broadcast, flipping cards with team logos to count down from 16 to 1. The thought was that it would be easier to digest if you simply showed the results, not how the sausage was made.

"We go from 16 to 1," Mayer said. "We build the drama. Who's it going to be?"

For transparency, the NHL would post a YouTube video of the draw afterward.

"No one bothers to watch the YouTube video," Mayer said.

But Mayer noticed something while spending years in the room for the draw.

"It's so nerve-wracking as one ball comes out after the other," Mayer said. "There are these sheets of paper with every combination possible and the team associated with every combination. There are 1,000 combinations. Along with everybody else in the room, you're quickly trying to look up who has a chance.

"And going into the final ball, you're able to locate who has that chance, and you wait with such anticipation for that last ball to come out.

"And that's the moment. There's a hush."

Mayer thought the NHL should have the fans experience that themselves.

Bettman will still preside over the draw, and Ernst & Young will still oversee it. Daly will still announce the order, but now fans will feel like they're in the room.

"We always struggled a bit with starting with 1 and going the other way," Mayer said. "But I'm willing to take the chance that people will not be bothered for one second by the fact that we're starting with the first pick."

Again, it can appear complicated.

There are four balls numbered 1 to 14 and 1,001 possible four-number combinations. One combination is designated as a redraw (11,12,13,14), allowing the NHL to divide by 1,000 among the 16 teams that did not make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Based on the final NHL regular-season standings and the draft lottery odds determined by the Board of Governors, each team receives an allotment of randomly assigned four-number combinations. Essentially, the lower you finish, the more lottery tickets you receive.

The San Jose Sharks, who finished 32nd in the NHL standings, receive 185. The Chicago Blackhawks, who finished 31st, receive 135. The Nashville Predators, who finished 30th, receive 115. And so on.

There are two draws, not one, and a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots. That means only the top 11 seeds can win the first pick; the bottom five cannot. That adds potential wrinkles too.

The first draw locks in the No. 1 pick (and potentially another pick). The second draw determines the rest of the order. If the winner of the first draw wins the second draw, there is a redraw.

Last year, the Sharks, who finished 32nd in the regular season, won the first draw, retaining the first pick. They also won the second draw twice -- no surprise, considering they had the best odds. That triggered two redraws. The Blackhawks, who finished 31st, won the second redraw and retained the second pick. In the end, the draft order didn't change. It lined up with the odds.

But there are myriad scenarios. So many things can happen.

Say, for example, the Columbus Blue Jackets win the first draw this year. They have the 13th-best odds and can move up only to the No. 3 pick. In that scenario, the Sharks would be locked into the No. 1 pick and the Blue Jackets into the No. 3 pick.

If San Jose or any of the teams seeded 14th through 16th wins the second draw, San Jose picks first, Chicago second and Columbus third. In that scenario, Nashville would be bumped back from No. 3 to No. 4.

But say the Predators win the second draw. They would get the No. 2 pick, with Chicago bumped back to No. 4. Yes, the winner of the second draw can end up with a higher pick than the winner of the first draw.

It can be confusing and exciting at the same time. The NHL has decided it's worth showing on live TV.

"There is some risk that if we draw the same team as we drew the first time, we have a redraw," Mayer said. "These are the things that we anticipate, we get, and we'll leave time for. We'll live and learn a little bit.

"But at the same time, we do think that this is going to be really cool, and everything we do is with our fans in mind and just giving them something a bit more compelling. We're not afraid to try things, and in this case, we just think that people will like it."