Eagles hold 14 per cent chance of winning draft lottery

SYDNEY — On the same day the Cape Breton Eagles begin their Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League semifinal series in Baie-Comeau, the team will also learn its faith in the league’s entry draft in June.

Cape Breton will be among four teams looking to land the first overall pick during the QMJHL’s draft lottery tonight.

The draft lottery will be held during a special edition of the Hockey 360 show on RDS and will be announced at 7:30 p.m. Atlantic time – a half hour before the Eagles face the Drakkar in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series.

The Eagles, holding the Saint John Sea Dogs' firstround pick, will have a 14 per cent chance of claiming the first pick for the 2024 draft, which is scheduled for June 7-8 at Avenir Centre in Moncton.

Cape Breton acquired the Sea Dogs’ pick in a trade that sent forward Connor Trenholm to Saint John in January 2022.

The Eagles last picked first overall in 2022 when they selected defenceman Tomas Lavoie.

The Val-d’Or Foreurs, who finished last in the 18-team league, will have the best odds of getting the top pick.

Val-d’Or has a 43 per cent chance with finishing 18th overall, but also hold Quebec’s pick, which has a 28 per cent chance of getting the first overall pick. Val-d’Or’s odds of picking first overall is 71 per cent.

In total, Val-d’Or will have 15 balls in the lottery, Cape Breton will have three balls, Quebec, holding Charlottetown’s pick, will have two balls and a 10 per cent chance and Saint John, holding Gatineau’s pick, will have one ball and a five per cent chance.

The draft lottery is for teams that finished in the bottom five in the 2023-24 overall standings.

General managers Maxime Desruisseaux (Val-d’Or), Sylvain Couturier (Cape Breton), Simon Gagné (Quebec) and Anthony Stella (Saint John) are expected to be in the RDS studios for the live draft lottery.