nhl lottery draft

nhl lottery draft

What is the purpose of the NHL draft lottery?

It seems logical to me that, to instill some parity, teams would pick in descending order based on points from the prior season. Do the worst teams get more “chances” to win the lottery?

The purpose is to dispel fears that teams would deliberately tank the season in order to get prime picks when they knew there was a great prospect/deep draft availible. Think of it this way, how many non-playoff teams would’ve given it even a shot if they knew all they had to do was finish last to get crosby?

The draft is 1000 ping pong balls, each with a team logo on it, in the percentages based on where they finish in the standings (points wise). Only non-playoff teams are eligible for the draft. The percentages are as follows:
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%

So based on this formula, Colorado (despite having more points than 3 of the playoff teams in the east) is considered 17th, and Philly is the worst, at 30th.

Blackhawks, from the #26 spot (8.1% chance) won the lottery this year

Highlights from 2010 tournament