The NHL Draft Lottery takes place tonight at 6:30 PM (est).
The Sabres have two picks to keep an eye on in the drawing; their own selection (currently 9th overall) and the Vegas pick acquired in the Jack Eichel trade (currently 16th overall).
Here’s everything you need to know.
How to Watch
⏰: 6:30 P.M.
📺: ESPN
New Rules
There will be two draws — one for the No. 1 pick and one for the No. 2 pick.
This is a change from the previous three drawings for the top three picks.
Teams will be restricted from moving up more than 10 spots if it wins one of the draws.
This means teams slotted between No. 12-16 (notably Vegas) cannot get the No. 1 pick.
Starting this year, teams are only allowed to improve their positioning via the lottery twice in a five-year period.
This means last year’s lottery win does not prevent the Sabres from being selected this year.
The Vegas Pick
So what happens if the Vegas pick acquired in the Eichel deal is drawn?
Given the new rules, Vegas cannot select 1st or 2nd overall, as that requires moving up more than 10 spots.
They can select 6th (0.8%), 7th (0.2%) or stay put at 16 (98.9%)*
*The pick acquired by the Sabres is top-10 protected, so as long as Vegas doesn’t move to 6 or 7, the Sabres will receive the pick this year.
If Vegas’ pick is chosen, the Sabres will have to wait until 2023. If this is the case, next year’s pick would not be lottery-protected.
Odds
The Sabres have a 10.4% chance of selecting in the top-2.
More than likely they’ll be selecting 9th and 16th when it’s all said and done. But it’s called a lottery for a reason. You just never really know with these things.
Vaulting up the draft board would be quite the cherry on top of a promising end to the season for Kevyn Adams and the organization.
Their full odds are as followed:
Following the results of the lottery, we’ll be releasing Version 1.0 of our 2022 NHL Mock later this week.