2020 First Overall NHL Draft Lottery: Start time, TV schedule, teams, odds, and how to watch

How to watch

Start time: 6:00 PM EDT / 3:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Sportsnet, Sportsnet Now (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the USA: NBCSN, NHL Network

On June 26, the NHL held it’s usual three lotteries to determine which teams would claim the first three picks in the 2020 NHL Draft. The Ottawa Senators won the third overall pick, the Los Angeles Kings the second, but the result of the 1st Lottery Draw for the top selection was anything put usual.

After deciding on a 24-team post-season, there would be eight clubs that participated in the expanded format but wouldn’t officially make the playoffs once they lost their qualification-round series. So eight placeholders were added to represent the losing teams from the play-in series, and one of them happened to win. The result in tonight’s Phase 2 lottery that will award the top pick to one of the clubs that fell in the best-of-five series.

The winner will very likely be selecting Alexis Lafreière, but there are also a couple of players who project as centreman who will still be available to the Kings and Senators with the next pick. It’s not a future-superstar-laden draft, but it is one of the deepest first-round classes the league has seen in a few years, with plenty of the players selected expected to become key players for their new teams.

While Phase 1 had higher odds of winning the worse the team was in the regulat season, tonight’s lottery gives all eight participating teams the same odds. The 21st-ranked Minnesota Wild are just as likely to win the sweepstakes as the seventh-place Pittsburgh Penguins.

In an excellent decision by the NHL, the actual draw will be broadcast live. Teams will learn the results number-by-number at the same time as fans. Gary Bettman will be announcing the numbers as the machine pops them out, and odds will rise and fall for the individual teams with each one. It’s certain to be a night filled with suspense, and a more entertaining format than simply flipping cards to show the winners, which has been the typical method of revealing winners (if they weren’t spoiled beforehand). The fortunes of all eight teams could very well be on the line with one ball left to go.

UPDATE: Eight balls, one with each logo will be used. Whichever one comes up will be the team that claims the pick.

Now for a few polls. In your personal opinion ...