Canadians hope luck is on their side in Tuesday’s NHL Draft lottery

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The Canadiens’ rebuilding plan would get a big boost if they win Tuesday’s NHL Draft Lottery. (6:30 pm, SN, TVA Deportes), to be held at the NHL Network studio in Secaucus, New Jersey

The Canadiens have the fifth-best odds to win the lottery (8.5 per cent) after finishing 28th overall in the NHL this season, missing the playoffs for the third straight year. The teams with the best odds are the San Jose Sharks (18.5 percent), who finished with the worst record this season, the Chicago Blackhawks (13.5 percent), the Anaheim Ducks (11.5 percent) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (9.5 percent). penny).

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The top-rated prospect in this year’s draft is Macklin Celebrini, a 6-foot, 190-pound center who posted totals of 32-32-64 in 38 games this season as a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Boston. The Vancouver native will turn 18 on June 13.

“Super dynamic,” Jeff Gorton, the Canadiens’ executive vice president of hockey operations, said in March when asked about Celebrini on The Sick Podcast with Jimmy Murphy and Pierre McGuire. “His shot from him is incredible, he has one shot. There’s not much he can’t do. A 200 foot game. He is a pretty special boy. That is, 30 goals, the amount of points he has as a rookie. … There are some 25-year-old kids in college hockey. For what he’s done… I think we expected him to be good, but this goes beyond that.”

The Canadiens won the draft lottery two years ago after finishing with the worst record in the NHL and having the best odds. They drafted Juraj Slafkovsky, who had 20-30-50 totals in 82 games this season. Last season, when the Canadiens also finished 28th overall, they ended up with the fifth overall pick and took defenseman David Reinbacher.

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The NHL introduced the draft lottery in 1995. In the first 29 years of the lottery, the team with the best odds won the first pick 11 times. Last season, the Blackhawks had the third-best odds (11.5 percent) and won the lottery, selecting Connor Bedard with the first pick. Bedard was 22-39-61 in 68 games this season, missing 14 games due to a broken jaw.

Three times, the team with the fifth-best odds to win the draft lottery (the Canadiens’ position this season) won the top pick. Those three teams were the New York Islanders, who drafted goaltender Rick DiPietro in 2000; the Blackhawks, who drafted Patrick Kane in 2007; and the New Jersey Devils, who drafted Nico Hischier in 2017.

The draft lottery system can be confusing and the Canadiens will pick first, second, third, fifth, sixth or seventh. They can’t end up with the fourth overall pick and can’t lose more than two spots in the lottery. The Canadiens’ best odds are to finish sixth overall.

TSN draft guru Bob McKenzie posted his draft rankings Monday afternoon, writing that regardless of Celebrini getting the No. 1 overall pick, “buckle up because it looks like it’s going to be an unpredictable ride.”

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McKenzie had Sam Dickinson, a 6-foot-2, 199-pound “two-way, smooth-skating, puck-moving defenseman” with the London Knights at No. 6.

McKenzie’s top five, in order, were: Celebrini, skilled Russian center Ivan Demidov, towering Russian defenseman Anton Silayev, Belarusian defenseman Artyom Levshunov, who plays at Michigan State, and high-scoring center Cayden Lindstrom of the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The Canadiens have a second first-round pick this year as a result of Sean Monahan’s trade to the Winnipeg Jets in February. Where that pick lands will depend on how the postseason plays out. The Jets were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche.

The NHL Draft will take place June 28-29 in Las Vegas.

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