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Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Toronto Maple Leafs Will have The First Pick In The 2016 NHL Draft

04/30/2016 at 8:44pm EDT

from Mike G. Morreale of NHL.com,

The Toronto Maple Leafs will pick first in the 2016 NHL Draft after winning the NHL Draft Lottery on Saturday.

The Winnipeg Jets were awarded the No. 2 pick, and the Columbus Blue Jackets won the No. 3 selection.

The Maple Leafs had a 20 percent chance, the best odds, to win the No. 1 pick in the draft, which will be held June 24-25 at First Niagara Center in Buffalo. They are the first Original Six franchise to have the No. 1 pick since 2007, when the Chicago Blackhawks selected right wing Patrick Kane.

The Maple Leafs are likely to use the pick to select center Auston Matthews of Zurich in the National League A, the top professional league in Switzerland. Matthews (6-foot-1, 210 pounds), a native of Scottsdale, Ariz., is No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of international skaters eligible for the draft. The 18-year-old won the league's Rising Star award and was second in voting for most valuable player in NLA after scoring 24 goals and 46 points in 36 games.

If chosen No. 1, Matthews would be the first American-born player since Kane to be selected first.

continued

added 9:15pm, NHL release is below...

TORONTO (April 30, 2016) -- The Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets own the first, second and third overall drafting positions, respectively, for the First Round of the 2016 NHL Draft as a result of the 2016 NHL Draft Lottery Drawing in Toronto.

For the first time, the 2016 NHL Draft Lottery assigned the top three slots in the first round of the NHL Draft – a change from prior years, when the Draft Lottery was used to determine the winner of the first overall selection exclusively.

Maple Leafs Win No. 1 Drafting Position

In the first drawing, the Maple Leafs had the greatest percentage likelihood of being selected based on inverse order of regular-season finish (20.0%). It marks the first time since 2010 (Edmonton) that the team with the highest percentage chance retained the first overall selection.

The Maple Leafs, selected in the NHL Draft Lottery for the first time, have made the first overall draft pick once before, in 1985 (Wendel Clark).

Jets Win No. 2 Drafting Position

In the second drawing, the Jets had the fifth-greatest percentage likelihood among the 13 remaining clubs eligible for selection (9.4%) and climbed from No. 6 to No. 2. The Jets franchise has selected No. 2 overall twice before, when the team was located in Atlanta (Dany Heatley in 2000, Kari Lehtonen in 2002).

Blue Jackets Win No. 3 Drafting Position

In the third drawing, the Blue Jackets had the third-greatest percentage likelihood among the 12 remaining clubs eligible for selection (13.1%). After dropping from No. 4 to No. 5 as a result of the second drawing, Columbus climbed to No. 3, improving its drafting position as a result of the NHL Draft Lottery for the first time in franchise history. The Blue Jackets have never selected No. 3 overall.

Three draws were held: the first drawing determined the club selecting first overall, the second drawing determined the club selecting second overall and the third drawing determined the club selecting third overall. Once a club was assigned a pick, it was ineligible for further participation in subsequent drawings, but there were no re-draws required.

All clubs that did not qualify for this season's Stanley Cup Playoffs, or clubs that acquired the first-round picks of those non-playoff clubs, participated in the Draft Lottery.

The allocation of odds for the first Lottery draw were the same as for the 2015 NHL Draft Lottery. The odds for the remaining teams increased on a proportionate basis for the second drawing, based on which club won the first drawing, and again for the third drawing, based on which club won the second drawing.

The 11 clubs not selected in the Draft Lottery were assigned NHL Draft selections 4 through 14, in inverse order of regular-season points.

The order of selection for the first 14 drafting positions in the First Round, only, of the 2016 NHL Draft is as follows:

1. Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Winnipeg Jets
3. Columbus Blue Jackets
4. Edmonton Oilers
5. Vancouver Canucks
6. Calgary Flames
7. Arizona Coyotes
8. Buffalo Sabres
9. Montreal Canadiens
10. Colorado Avalanche
11. New Jersey Devils
12. Ottawa Senators
13. Carolina Hurricanes
14. Boston Bruins

The remaining positions are determined by the results of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The drawing was conducted at Rogers Sportsnet’s studio in downtown Toronto and the winning teams were revealed live on CBC and TVA Sports in Canada and NBC in the U.S. prior to their broadcast of Game 2 of the Capitals-Penguins Second Round series.

For each of the three drawings, 14 balls, numbered 1 to 14, were placed in a lottery machine. The machine randomly selected four balls. The resulting four-number series (without regard to selection order) was matched against a chart that shows all possible combinations and the clubs to which each was assigned. The chart (available at NHL.com) showed that the Maple Leafs had been assigned the numbers (5-6-8-13) that were expelled in the first drawing, followed by the Jets (5-7-10-14) in the second drawing and the Blue Jackets (3-4-5-7) in the third drawing.

The 2016 NHL Draft will be held June 24-25 at First Niagara Center in Buffalo. This will be the third time the event will be held in Buffalo; the city previously hosted the NHL Draft in 1991 and 1998.

Results of Draft Drawings


Year Selected Effect on Draft Order Player Selected
1995 Los Angeles Moved from 7th to 3rd D Aki Berg
1996 Ottawa Retained 1st selection D Chris Phillips
1997 Boston Retained 1st selection C Joe Thornton
1998 Tampa Bay Moved from 3rd to 1st via trades C Vincent Lecavalier
1999 Chicago Moved from 8th to 4th RW Pavel Brendl *
2000 NY Islanders Moved from 5th to 1st G Rick DiPietro
2001 Atlanta Moved from 3rd to 1st LW Ilya Kovalchuk
2002 Florida Moved from 3rd to 1st LW Rick Nash **
2003 Florida Moved from 4th to 1st G Marc-Andre Fleury ***
2004 Washington Moved from 3rd to 1st LW Alex Ovechkin
2005 Pittsburgh n/a C Sidney Crosby
2006 St. Louis Retained 1st selection D Erik Johnson
2007 Chicago Moved from 5th to 1st RW Patrick Kane
2008 Tampa Bay Retained 1st selection C Steven Stamkos
2009 NY Islanders Retained 1st selection C John Tavares
2010 Edmonton Retained 1st selection LW Taylor Hall
2011 New Jersey Moved from 8th to 4th D Adam Larsson
2012 Edmonton Moved from 2nd to 1st RW Nail Yakupov
2013 Colorado Moved from 2nd to 1st C Nathan MacKinnon
2014 Florida Moved from 2nd to 1st D Aaron Ekblad
2015 Edmonton Moved from 3rd to 1st C Connor McDavid

2016 Toronto Retained 1st selection
2016 Winnipeg Moved from No. 6 to No. 2
2016 Columbus Moved from No. 4 to No. 3

* NY Rangers obtained Chicago's pick in a trade (via Vancouver and Tampa Bay). The Rangers selected RW Pavel Brendl fourth overall.

** Columbus obtained Florida's pick in a trade. The Blue Jackets selected LW Rick Nash first overall.

*** Pittsburgh obtained Florida's pick in a trade. The Penguins selected G Marc-Andre Fleury first overall.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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