Isles win draft lottery for first time since '09
The New York Islanders win the 2025 NHL draft lottery after having only a 3.5% chance to do so. (1:25)
SECAUCUS, N.J. -- The New York Islanders won the NHL draft lottery on Monday night, moving up 10 spots to make the league's first live televised drawing a memorable one.
"It was dramatic," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told ESPN after the drawing. "It worked the way it was supposed to in terms of the process. But the result was unpredictable."
The Islanders had a 3.5% chance of securing the first pick entering the draft, the 10th-best odds out of the 16 teams in the lottery. It's the fifth time in franchise history that the Islanders will select first, and the first time since they picked center John Tavares in 2009. Other first overall picks for New York were forward Billy Harris (1972), defenseman Denis Potvin (1973) and goalie Rick DiPietro (2000).
"The hockey gods smiled on us. I can't tell you how thrilled I am for Islander fans, for our ownership, for the entire Islander organization," Islanders director of pro scouting Ken Morrow said.
The Islanders' jump from 10th to first is the biggest involving a team winning the No. 1 selection. It comes after the last-place team won the lottery to retain the first pick in four of the past five years.
Boston College forward James Hagens, a Long Island native, is one of the top prospects available in the 2025 NHL draft, scheduled for L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 27-28.
Two drawings were held, the first to determine the No. 1 pick followed by the No. 2 selection. Only the bottom 11 teams in the standings were eligible to land the first pick due to a rule restricting teams to moving up no more than 10 spots in the draft order. Each drawing selected a four-number combination that had been assigned to a team before the draft, with balls drawn at 30-second increments. There were 1,001 possible combinations.
The San Jose Sharks entered the day with the best odds, 18.5%, to win the lottery and a 25.5% chance of landing the No. 1 choice for the second straight season, having selected center Macklin Celebrini first in 2024. Celebrini joined Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson and Calgary Flames goalie Dustin Wolf as finalists for the Calder Trophy for NHL rookie of the year, as announced on Monday.
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The Sharks settled for the second pick in 2025 after the Utah Hockey Club won the second lottery draw, moving up from 14th to No. 4 overall. The Chicago Blackhawks had the second-best chances to win the lottery and will pick third. The Nashville Predators had no lottery luck -- despite having the third-best odds, they drop to the fifth pick.
The drama was amplified in this season's lottery as the NHL televised the drawing live from the NHL Network studios for the first time in the event's 30-year history. Previously, the drawing was held in a sequestered room at the facility, with deputy commissioner Bill Daly revealing each draft position by flipping over a stack of cards on television.
"It's basically the same thing that I do when we'd pretape it and Bill would reveal it. For me, it's the same. It's a little different for Bill. He doesn't have to flip the cards over now," Bettman said.
The NHL decided to make the drawing live because it drew more fan bases into the excitement of the first overall pick than the previous format. Before the Islanders won the lottery, seven teams still had a shot at the first overall selection: The Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Islanders each had two balls that would win them the lottery, while the Sharks, Seattle Kraken and Buffalo Sabres each had one.
"It gave those teams and those fan bases hope going into that final. To me, that was what this was all about: To keep hope alive all the way until the end," Steve Mayer, the NHL's chief content officer, said.
There was plenty of drama before the final ball was drawn, too. The NHL partnered with SportsMEDIA Technology (SMT) to create real-time odds adjustments after every ball was selected. When No. 7 was selected as the first ball in the first drawing, the Sharks' odds spiked to 20.6%, while the Calgary Flames were eliminated. When No. 11 was taken second, the Sharks went up to 24.3% while four other teams were eliminated. When No. 12 was selected third, that's when things took a turn: The Sharks' chances dropped to 9.1%, the Predators and New York Rangers were eliminated and suddenly both the Penguins (9th) and the Islanders (10th) had an 18.2% chance at the first overall pick.
"This was the idea from the beginning. If we're going to do this, we have to know after the first ball what the percentages are and who's out. We need to know after the second ball and the third. We need to know going into the last ball what every team needs," Mayer said.
"I said, 'Can somebody way smarter than me figure this out?' And that's what they end up doing."
At last year's draft lottery, the NHL did a very rough run-through of what a live lottery draw might look like. Mayer sent that video to Bettman and Daly before the live broadcast as a way to present the run of show, with MLB Network employees having stood in for the commissioner and deputy commissioner.
Were there any concerns? "Steve said a hundred percent guaranteed, no problem. And his track record on putting on events, outdoor games, All-Star Games and the draft is impeccable. So we rely on his assurance," Bettman said.
The NHL was pleased with the event after its completion, both in creating a more dramatic viewing experience and in the technology working. Bettman said there would be a debriefing among the league's staffers but anticipated the format would return next season. That's when the drama will really get amplified, when 17-year-old phenom Gavin McKenna of Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League is expected to be the first pick.
"All the lotteries are important, and they all get the same treatment, in terms of how seriously we treat them," Bettman said. "We can be a little lighthearted talking about how this [live drawing] came about, but in the final analysis, we had to get comfortable that this was a process with unquestionable integrity."
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