Embrace The Rebuild

The order above is how the lottery balls bounced today in the NHL's Draft Lottery, and it seems that the San Jose Sharks will likely draft Bay Area resident Macklin Celebrini with their first-overall selection. There weren't too many interesting developments in the draft order, I found, but it's kind of cool to know the first player selected by an NHL team based in Utah will come at the sixth pick. For a handful of teams, the rebuild is certainly underway with where they landed in the lottery, and we'll see who goes where on June 28.

I haven't paid enough attention to know who is ranked higher than whom on the scouting lists, and it doesn't really matter when it comes to some of these teams. A few will draft the best player at a specific position where they feel they have a weakness, but the majority of teams will select the best player as per their opinions when their general managers are called to the stage. Whether than helps or harms a team's overall chances of improving will likely be determined years later, but everyone seems to believe that there are game-changing players available for teams to select. There are lots of choices for GMs when it comes to players...

In the meantime, the remaining 16 teams are figuring out who will draft where based on their finishes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but there are a few teams who will have a quiet night on June 28. Here is the list of teams, written in capital letters, who will miss the stage on the opening night of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft:

• TAMPA BAY traded their pick to Chicago as part of their 2022 deal to acquire Brandon Hagel.
• EDMONTON dealt their pick to Anaheim for Adam Henrique.
• BOSTON traded their 2024 pick to Detroit for Tyler Bertuzzi in 2023 which Detroit flipped to Ottawa for the rights to sign Alex DeBrincat.
• WINNIPEG dealt their pick to Montreal for Sean Monahan.
• VANCOUVER traded their pick to Calgary for Elias Lindholm.
• FLORIDA traded their pick to Philadelphia in the 2022 deal for Claude Giroux.
• PITTSBURGH traded their pick to San Jose for Erik Karlsson.

For these seven teams, they'll need to get creative if they want stand on the stage at the Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28. For 25 teams, they'll take a shot at picking the player who will push them to new heights next season and beyond as they embrace the rebuild or further their plans to dominate the league. No matter what happens, though, sixteen teams now know at what spot they're choosing come June 28 at the 2024 NHL Entry Draft in Las Vegas.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!