Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
The NHL season has come to a close, and we have the finalized draft lottery order.
San Jose finished with just 47 points, tying them for the sixth-worst record in a season with at least 82 games. Along with that, when super-rookie Connor Bedard wasn’t on the ice, Chicago struggled in all aspects of the game. And Anaheim didn’t take the step many in hockey thought they would.
The final lottery odds are as follows, with the odds at No. 1 overall in brackets:
- San Jose Sharks 18.5% (25.5%)
- Chicago Blackhawks 13.5% (13.5%)
- Anaheim Ducks 11.5% (11.5%)
- Columbus Blue Jackets 9.5% (9.5%)
- Montreal Canadiens 8.5% (8.5%)
- Arizona Coyotes 7.5% (7.5%)
- Ottawa Senators 6.5% (6.5%)
- Seattle Kraken 6.0% (6.0%)
- Calgary Flames 5.0% (5.0%)
- New Jersey Devils 3.5% (3.5%)
- Buffalo Sabres 3.0% (3.0%)
- Philadelphia Flyers 2.5% (0%)
- Minnesota Wild 2.0% (0%)
- San Jose via Pittsburgh Penguins 1.5% (0%)
- Detroit Red Wings 0.5% (0%)
- St. Louis Blues 0.5% (0%)
With this being the final NHL Sour Rankings of the season and the final order already set in stone, let’s assume that nothing changes when the NHL draft lottery takes place and play matchmaker. We’re pairing each team up with their ideal draft prospect who fits their needs and could be available in their range.
You can check out my latest 2024 NHL draft ranking on The Hockey News now.
San Jose Sharks: Macklin Celebrini, C
This one is simple. The Sharks get their guy. Celebrini goes out west where he is close to his father who works as director of sports medicine and performance for the Golden State Warriors. Celebrini would step in as the top prospect in the system and likely quickly assert himself as the top-line center for San Jose.
Macklin Celebrini’s 30th goal in the season was a snipe 🎯
First @TerrierHockey player to get 30 in a season since Chris Drury ⏪ pic.twitter.com/fme4ddYCmC
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 16, 2024
Chicago Blackhawks: Ivan Demidov, RW
Last year, they got their franchise center and the sniper who can put up big goal totals when he has some talent around him. This year, they get that talented playmaker who will be able to keep up with Bedard’s creativity in Demidov. The uber-skilled winger plays with so much deception and manipulation, creating passing lanes and drawing pressure regularly. Pairing Beadrd and Demidov for the next decade or more could be a recipe for great success.
Anaheim Ducks: Artyom Levshunov, RHD
The Ducks have been building up their prospect pool and with the addition of Cutter Gauthier, they now have a one-two punch of Leo Carlsson and Gauthier down the middle with a plethora of talented wingers. They also have Mason McTavish who can play down the middle or on the wing. They could use a big, physically gifted right-shot defender and Artyom Levshunov fits that mold perfectly. They don’t have to rush him, allowing him to stay in college at Michigan State for one more year to develop. Levshunov has all of the tools, it’s just about refining his game.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Berkly Catton, C
This was a tough one because we don’t know who will be making this pick for Columbus. With a bit of a need down the middle and already having big, young centers Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger to fill the number 1 and 3 spots down the middle, slotting Berkly Catton into the 2C spot eventually would give them a three-headed monster that brings a varying set of tools and skills. Catton is a play driver who can do it all offensively. With no pressure to be “The Guy” with Fantilli ahead of him, Catton would be able to excel.
Montreal Canadiens: Cayden Lindstrom, C
The Habs have a solid group of defensemen coming up. We just saw a glimpse of what Lane Hutson can do at the NHL level. With Kaiden Guhle, Jayden Struble, Logan Mailloux and a number of other players on the back end coming, they need to build their forward depth, particularly down the middle. Cayden Lindstrom fits what Jeff Gorton and company have liked in the past with a combination of power, speed and skill. Adding Lindstrom to eventually slot in behind Suzuki and allow Kirby Dach to play wing or center the third line would help spread out the depth in the Habs lineup.
Utah (formerly Arizona Coyotes): Zayne Parekh, RHD
The Utah franchise has a number of solid players throughout its lineup and prospect pool. But the one area where they seem to have a bit of a hole is on the right side of the blueline. While they have defenders like hulking Russian blueliner Dmitri Simashev on the way, they don’t have anyone who could be considered a true game-breaking talent in the defensive pipeline. That is where high-scoring right-shot defenseman Zayne Parekh comes in. He has a boatload of offensive talent and could be a really fun choice as the first draft pick in Utah’s NHL history.
Ottawa Senators: Carter Yakemchuk, RHD
The Sens’ rebuild inevitably is not over, but they have the building blocks to get there soon. They need to balance out their back end, and with a prospect pool as depleted as their playoff hopes this season, they need a bit of everything. Carter Yakemchuk is a big defender who scored 30 goals in the WHL this past season. He fits the kind of players they’ve drafted in the past but they have a new regime. Luckily, Yakemchuk fits in with their most glaring need on the NHL roster and in their pipeline.
Seattle Kraken: Anton Silayev, LHD
With so many exciting prospects in the system already, the NHL’s most recent expansion franchise will have the chance to add a big, strong skating blueliner to their system. They have a few really solid defense prospects but they don’t have anyone that could bring what Silayev brings with his combination of size and skating. He could be a true defensive pillar as a 6-foot-7 presence on the back end for years to come.
Calgary Flames: Zeev Buium, LHD
The Flames need a bit of everything in their prospect pool but their blueline is particularly bare – even after the Elias Lindholm trade netted them Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo. Zeev Buium has been fantastic all season with the University of Denver but the way he performed on the big stage in the Frozen Four is sure to go a long way in convincing NHL clubs that he’s worth a high pick. Buium would become the Flames’ top prospect on the backend and would be a key piece of their core moving forward.
That’s a National League pass by Zeev Buium pic.twitter.com/TUYYBEZQXO
— Puck Watching (@_PuckWatching) April 13, 2024
New Jersey Devils: Konsta Helenius, C
The Devils have plenty of young blueliners and some really intriguing young forwards. They are one of the best setup teams for the next few years when it comes to their prospects and young NHLers but adding Konsta Helenius to the fold would be a sneaky good addition. He wouldn’t have the pressure of playing in the top six with all-world center Jack Hughes and Devils’ captain Nico Hischier filling those roles, allowing Helenius to settle in as a depth center. It could create some insane long-term depth down the middle for the Devils.
Buffalo Sabres: Adam Jiricek, RHD
The Sabres didn’t have the year they or anyone was expecting with players throughout the lineup taking a step back or stagnating. All of those young pieces remain and they still have plenty coming. Jiricek was trending up on draft boards and looked like a potential top-ten pick before a season-ending injury at the World Junior Championship. The Sabres won’t be in a rush to get Jiricek on the roster but if he falls because of injury, he could be the perfect right-shot addition to pair with their plethora of left-shot studs like Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin, and Bowen Byram.
Philadelphia Flyers: Sam Dickinson, LHD
The Flyers weren’t supposed to be good this season and for much of the season, they were. Although they had an epic collapse to fall out of the playoffs, they were a team that played some high-pressure hockey that gave their young players some experience in those situations. Falling out of the playoffs gives them a chance to make a pick that could help build up their pipeline for the future and taking Sam Dickinson here would do just that. He’d become their top left-shot defense prospect and he played with last year’s first-round pick, Oliver Bonk on the London Knights. The Flyers could double-dip into the Knights’ blueline for a player who could be a top-10 talent in this draft class.
Minnesota Wild: Tij Iginla, LW
The Minnesota Wild love a player who works their tail off, and Tij Iginla does exactly that. He has scored in bunches at the WHL level, outworking everyone around him with a solid amount of skill on the puck. He is a wicked dual-threat scorer who is a better playmaker than his assist totals would indicate and he fills the net. Iginla does a lot of the little things that make pros successful already so he might be one of the more easily translatable players in this range of the draft.
Andrew Cristall tees up Tij Iginla #WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingTheFuture | #ALLCAPS | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/YLpMWYeYeM
— Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets) April 20, 2024
San Jose (via Pittsburgh Penguins): Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, RW
The pick that the Sharks got in return for Erik Karlsson could be used in a variety of ways, but adding a versatile winger who plays a pro-style game and started heating up offensively in the latter stages of the season including the playoffs where he was one of his team’s best players could be one of them. He had a very good season in the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s second tier, and was a force for Norway at the World Juniors. He can play up and down the lineup and could help ease the defensive burden for an offensive-minded center (Will Smith) down the line.
Detroit Red Wings: Cole Eiserman, LW
The Wings were so close to making the playoffs but fell just short after a tough month of March sewered a solid season. They need more skill and upside from their forward corps. They could use a natural finisher or two in their lineup as well. Eiserman might be a great fit for the wings as they can rely on one of their more well-rounded centers, both at the NHL level and in their prospect pool, to help cover up his deficiencies and just let him be a grip it and rip it winger who can score in an instant.
St. Louis Blues: Liam Greentree, RW
The Blues are rebuilding on the fly, ushering in a new generation of talent and trying to stay relatively competitive. They’ve always preferred big-bodied forwards who have skill. Liam Greentree deals with defenders leaning on him as well as any player in the draft class and always finds a way to make a play under pressure. He has size, slick hands, excellent vision and could look really good on the Blues in a couple of years as some of their long-time veterans enter their twilight years.
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