Thanks to a trio of results on the final day of the NHL’s 2014-15 regular season—their own loss to L.A. along with Florida and Colorado winning their respective games—the Sharks will finish with the league’s ninth-worst record, guaranteeing them no worse than the 10th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft as well as 5% odds at winning next Saturday’s lottery for the first overall pick.
They’re slim odds to be sure, but drafting a franchise-changing, generational talent in projected first overall pick Connor McDavid would certainly make up for enduring a frustrating and disappointing playoff-less season and then some. More realistically, the 9th overall pick (which is what the Sharks will own provided neither they nor any of the teams above them in the standings win the draft lottery) should give San Jose their pick of elite defense prospects Ivan Provorov, Zach Werenski and Oliver Kylington or promising forwards Matt Barzal, Kyle Connor and Pavel Zacha as well as the opportunity to trade down and pick up an extra second rounder in a deep draft.
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