You have to like Vegas’s odds in NHL lottery
As jackpots go in Las Vegas, George McPhee wouldn’t mind little Lady Luck being on the side of his Golden Knights expansion franchise when the NHL holds its draft lottery on Saturday.
“That would be so like Vegas in its first lottery, winning it,” the Golden Knights general manager told The Associated Press by phone.
The odds aren’t that bad for a franchise preparing to open its first season in October.
The Golden Knights and desert rival Arizona Coyotes have each been awarded a 10.3 per cent chance of winning the lottery, giving them the third-best shot at landing the No. 1 pick in the draft in June. The Colorado Avalanche, with an 18 per cent chance, have the best odds after finishing with the league’s worst record this season, followed by the Vancouver Canucks (12.1 per cent chance).
At worst, the Golden Knights will select no lower than No. 6.
McPhee can also attest to knowing how teams with the best odds don’t always win.
He was the Capitals general manager in 2004, when Washington won the lottery by vaulting from third to first to claim the right to draft Alex Ovechkin. The Edmonton Oilers bucked the odds in 2015, when they also moved up from third to first and selected Connor McDavid.
Though there have been various formats since the NHL introduced the lottery in 1995, teams with the best odds have won it just seven of 21 times. That included last year, when the Toronto Maple Leafs retained the top pick to end a five-year run of last-place teams losing the lottery. They drafted rookie-of-theyear finalist Auston Matthews.
McPhee understands how a No. 1 pick has the best potential to spur a franchise’s growth — particularly a newcomer such as Vegas.
“Ovechkin’s done that for Washington, and McDavid and Matthews and Eichel,” he said, in reference to Sabres forward Jack Eichel, the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft. “And they can really turn a town that isn’t already a hockey town into a hockey town.”
This year’s class of draft prospects lacks the buzz McDavid, Eichel, Matthews and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine generated the previous two years.
NHL Central Scouting ranks Nolan Patrick as its top prospect even though the forward for the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings missed 35 regular-season and four playoff games due to injuries this year. At six-foot-two and 200 pounds, Patrick finished with 20 goals and 46 points in 33 games. Swiss-born forward Nico Hischier is ranked second after earning Quebec Major Junior Hockey League rookie-of-the-year honours playing for Halifax.