SALT LAKE CITY — For the first time, Utah will have some skin in the game when the National Hockey League holds its draft lottery on Tuesday. So if it's the first time you've paid attention to the hockey draft, it's also mine — so I did some research into how it works.
Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. (MDT), careers and fortunes will be decided by a strange contraption with 14 ping pong balls inside. The machine spits out four per pick. That makes for 1,001 possible four-number combinations. One of those numbers is thrown out, making an even 1,000 possible numbers divvied up by the NHL's non-playoff teams.
Utah's NHL team gets 75 numbers assigned randomly — that's a 7.5 percent chance of getting the #1 pick.
The NHL has 32 teams. The Arizona Coyotes — who are now the Utah [name to-be-determined] — ended the season at #27 and missed the playoffs, alon with 15 other teams. Among them, Utah has the sixth-best odds to get the number one pick.
The NHL only gives the 11 teams with the worst records the chance at pick #1. So, the Philadelphia Flyers could pick 2nd at best, and the St. Louis Blues could only move to the 6th pick.
At number six in the draft, Utah has about a 15 percent chance at a top-three pick. They are most likely to have the sixth or seventh pick overall.
The experts who spoke with FOX 13 News all said that after the number one pick — expected to be Boston University's Macklin Celebrini — it's kind of a crapshoot, meaning 6th could be as good as 2nd.
