NHL ENTRY DRAFT INFORMATION

History of the Draft
Setting the Draft Order
The Draft Lottery
Results of Previous Draft Lotteries
Eligibility for the Entry Draft
Length of Rights to Draft Selections  [this section is under construction at the moment]
Compensatory Draft Picks
 

HISTORY OF THE ENTRY DRAFT

The first NHL Entry Draft took place in 1963 in Montreal.  Prior to that, teams could simply sign a player under the age of 18 to a "sponsorship contract" that gave the team the exclusive rights to the player when he was eligible to play in the NHL.  [The Boston Bruins signed Bobby Orr to this kind of a deal when Orr was only 12.]    The idea for a draft came from then-NHL President Clarence Campbell, who wanted to help guarantee that every team could have a star player instead of the then-current system where teams like the Montreal Canadiens could use their influence to ensure they could continually choose the best underage players while leaving the rest for the other 5 teams to pick through.

Prior to 1995, the order of selection in the Entry Draft was determined by ranking the teams in order of points at the end of the season from worst to first, with the worst team getting the 1st overall pick. In 1993, the San Jose Sharks accused the Ottawa Senators of intentionally throwing games in order to get the #1 overall pick to take Alexandre Daigle. (Years later, the Senators later admitted they did in fact do this.) To guard against this from happening again, the NHL instituted a lottery method to decide the first overall pick beginning in 1995. This method has been used since, with the exception of the 2005 Entry Draft.

The first several drafts were held in Montreal, but since 1988 have rotated around the league.  Locations of the Entry Draft since its inception:

    1963-1984:  Montreal [the last 4 years at the Montreal Forum]
    1985:  Toronto, Convention Centre
    1986:  Montreal, Montreal Forum
    1987:  Detroit, Joe Louis Arena
    1988:  Montreal, Montreal Forum
    1989:  Bloomington [Minnesota], Met Sports Center
    1990:  Vancouver, B.C. Place
    1991:  Buffalo, Memorial Auditorium
    1992:  Montreal, Montreal Forum
    1993:  Quebec, Le Colisee
    1994:  Hartford, Hartford Civic Center
    1995:  Edmonton, Edmonton Coliseum  [now Rexall Place]
    1996:  St. Louis, Kiel Center [now Scottrade Center]
    1997:  Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Civic Arena  [now Mellon Arena]
    1998:  Buffalo, Midland Marine Arena  [now HSBC Arena]
    1999:  Boston, FleetCenter  [now TD Banknorth Garden]
    2000:  Calgary, Saddledome  [now Pengrowth Saddledome]
    2001:  Florida [Sunrise, FL], National Car Rental Center  [now BankAtlantic Center]
    2002:  Toronto, Air Canada Centre
    2003:  Nashville, Gaylord Entertainment Center  [now Sommet Center]
    2004:  Carolina [Raleigh, NC], RBC Center
    2005:  Ottawa, Westin Hotel
    2006:  Vancouver, General Motors Place
    2007:  Columbus, Nationwide Arena
    2008:  Ottawa [Kanata, ON], Sciotiabank Place
    2009:  Montreal, Bell Centre

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HOW THE DRAFT ORDER IS SELECTED

From NHL.com:

The order of selection among the Member Clubs in each season shall be determined in the following manner: (amended in 2007 to provide for points iv and v below)

A composite of all Member Clubs shall be prepared by placing:

1. First the Clubs which failed to qualify for the next preceding playoffs in the order of points earned by each of them in the regular schedule of the preceding season starting with the Club having the lowest points total and followed by the Club having the next lowest points total, and so forth.

2. The Clubs which participated in the next preceding playoffs (but had not been ranked first in their respective Divisions and did not make the Conference Finals) in order of points earned by each of them in the regular schedule of the next preceding season starting with the Club having the lowest total points and followed by the Club having the next lowest total points, and so forth.

3. The Clubs which had been ranked first in their Divisions during the next preceding season (but had not made the Conference Finals ) in the order of points earned by each of them in the regular schedule of the next preceding season starting with the Club having the lowest total points and followed by the Club having the next lowest total points, and so forth.

4. The Clubs who lose in the Conference Finals in the order of points earned by each of them in the regular schedule of the next preceding season starting with the Club having the lowest total points and followed by the Club having the next lowest total points.

5. The Club which loses in the Finals shall select next to last.

6. The Stanley Cup winner shall select last, thus, positioning all Clubs on the list.

In the event of a tie for any position, such tie shall be resolved by application of the rules governing the determination of final League standings. The resulting list shall constitute the order of selection.

Tie-Breaking Procedures:
At the conclusion of the regular season, the standing of the teams in each Conference shall be determined in accordance with the following priorities in the order listed:

1. First place in each of the three (3) divisions seeded 1, 2, and 3.

2. The higher number of points earned by the Club.

3. The greater number of games won by the Club.

4. The higher number of points earned in games against each other among two (2) or more Clubs having equal standing under priority (b) and (c) **

5. The greater differential between goals scored for and against by Clubs having equal standing under priority (d).

So ... positions 15-30 are set after the playoffs, while 1-14 are set by a weighted lottery.

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THE DRAFT LOTTERY - HOW IT WORKS

The lottery (the NHL refers to it as the Draft Drawing) involves the picks from clubs that don't make the current season's Stanley Cup Playoffs, or clubs that acquired the first-round picks of those non-playoff clubs. The lottery result does not affect the draft order for the remainder of the first round and rounds two through seven.

The club selected in the lottery may not move up more than four positions in the draft order. Thus the only clubs with the opportunity to receive the 1st overall selection are the five clubs with the lowest regular-season point totals (or clubs that acquired those clubs' first-round drafting positions). No club can move down more than one position as a result of the lottery. Under the weighted lottery system, the club with the fewest regular-season points will have the greatest chance (25%) of winning the lottery and will pick no lower than second at the Entry Draft.

Fourteen balls, numbered 1-14, are placed in a lottery machine and four are drawn, forming a series of numbers. A probability chart, created by Bortz & Company, divides the possible combinations among the 14 participating clubs. The four-digit series that results from the balls drawn are be compared to the probability chart to determine the team to which that combination has been assigned.

The percentage chance of being selected in the lottery is as follows, based on team finish:

30th........... 25.0% (250 combinations)
29th........... 18.8% (188 combinations)
28th........... 14.2% (142 combinations)
27th........... 10.7% (107 combinations)
26th.............8.1% (81 combinations)
25th.............6.2% (62 combinations)
24th.............4.7% (47 combinations)
23rd.............3.6% (36 combinations)
22nd............ 2.7% (27 combinations)
21st.............2.1% (21 combinations)
20th.............1.5% (15 combinations)
19th.............1.1% (11 combinations)
18th.............0.8% (8 combinations)
17th.............0.5% (5 combinations)

There are 1,001 numerical combinations possible, with one combination eliminated to make the odds fair; if the eliminated combination is drawn (a 0.1% probability), the drawing is immediately re-done.

After the club selected moves up, the balance of the first 14 draft selections are adjusted by one, with the appropriate clubs moving down one slot to accommodate the winner, if necessary.  Here's a chart showing the chances of each team picking in a given spot:

Thus the last-place team has a 48.2% chance of picking 1st and a 51.8% chance of picking 2nd; the "best" non-qualifying team has a 0.5% chance of picking 10th and a 99.5% chance of picking 14th

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"WINNERS" OF THE PREVIOUS DRAFT LOTTERIES
1995 - Los Angeles (was 7th, moved to 3rd; Ottawa retained 1st overall pick)
1996 - Ottawa (retained 1st overall pick)
1997 - Boston (retained 1st overall pick)
1998 - Tampa Bay (was 3rd, moved to 1st)*
1999 - Chicago (was 8th, moved to 4th; Tampa Bay retained 1st overall pick)
2000 - NY Islanders (was 5th, moved to 1st)
2001 - Atlanta (was 3rd, moved to 1st)
2002 - Florida (was 3rd, moved to 1st)
2003 - Florida (was 4th, moved to 1st
2004 - Washington (was 3rd, moved to 1st)
2005 - Pittsburgh (all 30 teams had a chance at #1)
2006 - St. Louis (retained 1st overall pick)
2007 - Chicago (was 5th, moved to 1st)
2008 - Tampa Bay (retained 1st overall pick)

* San Jose was selected in the 1998 draft drawing, but Tampa Bay held the right to swap 1st-round picks with the Sharks and exercised that right to go to 1st.

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ENTRY DRAFT FAQ  [this will move shortly]

Q: Which picks have been traded in this year's and future Entry Drafts?
A: Frank Marousek has put together an outstanding site that shows traded draft picks - both for current, future, and past years - as well as virtually every hockey transaction in the history of the NHL.ack to top