With their win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night and the conclusion of their regular season tonight, the Vancouver Canucks have finished the 2021 season with 50 points, jumping over the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings for 24th in the overall league standings. The Kings and Sharks, who both finished with 49 points) will finish in 25th and 26th, respectively.
Despite finishing in 29th in last year’s unexpectedly shortened season, the Sharks missed out on their third-overall draft selection, as that pick had been sent to the Ottawa Senators in 2018. The Kings moved up two spots to pick second and “Team E” was a placeholder until the conclusion of the play-in round that ultimately resulted in the New York Rangers moving up 11 spots for first overall.
The league has changed the draft lottery rules to only include lottery selections for the first two picks, starting with this season. There’s also the introduction of the Seattle Kraken, who have been given the third-overall seed, proportionally reducing the odds of the other teams. So at seventh, the Sharks are working with a 6.7% chance of winning the first-overall pick.
2021 NHL Draft Lottery Odds for 1st Overall
| Seed | Team | Lottery Odds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buffalo Sabres | 16.60% |
| 2 | Anaheim Ducks | 12.10% |
| 3 | Seattle Kraken* | 10.30% |
| 4 | New Jersey Devils | 10.30% |
| 5 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 8.50% |
| 6 | Detroit Red Wings | 7.60% |
| 7 | San Jose Sharks | 6.70% |
| 8 | Los Angeles Kings | 5.80% |
| 9 | Vancouver Canucks | 5.40% |
| 10 | Ottawa Senators | 4.50% |
| 11 | Arizona Coyotes** | 3.10% |
| 12 | Chicago Blackhawks | 2.70% |
| 13 | Calgary Flames | 2.20% |
| 14 | Philadelphia Flyers | 1.80% |
| 15 | Dallas Stars | 1.40% |
| 16 | New York Rangers | 1.00% |
* In their inaugural draft, the Seattle Kraken have been assigned the No. 3 seed with same lottery odds as the No. 4 seed (10.3%), so they cannot draft lower than fifth-overall.
** The Arizona Coyotes were forced to forfeit their first-round pick in 2021 NHL Draft, due to sanctions from the league in August 2020 for violating the the combine testing policy and will result in a re-draw if selected in either lottery.
The second-overall pick’s odds will adjust proportionally based on the team who wins first overall.
The 2021 NHL Draft Lottery will be held on Wednesday, June 2, at the NHL Network studio in Secaucus, New Jersey. The 2021 Entry Draft will be held virtually again this year, with the first round on Friday, July 23 and rounds 2-7 on Saturday, July 24.
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