{"id":556781,"date":"2026-04-20T16:19:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556781\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T16:19:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:19:51","slug":"devils-draft-lottery-odds-how-high-can-they-actually-climb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556781\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils Draft Lottery Odds: How High Can They Actually Climb?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By unpopular demand\u2014at least, from the fans and the media, the 2026 NHL Draft is decentralized once again. The New Jersey Devils<\/a> kept their first-round pick all year, and have a chance to select in the opening round.<\/p>\n

However, with Sunny Mehta<\/a> in charge, will they?<\/p>\n

The 2025-26 regular season is finished and the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs are firmly underway.<\/p>\n

The Devils finished 21st overall in the NHL with a 42-37-3 record, which did not qualify for the postseason.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery odds were released:<\/p>\n

Teams (Fewest Points to Most)OddsCombinations (out of 1,000)Vancouver Canucks18.5%185Chicago Blackhawks13.5%135New York Rangers11.5%115Calgary Flames9.5%95Toronto Maple Leafs (cond. to BOS) *8.5%85Seattle Kraken7.5%75Winnipeg Jets6.5%65Florida Panthers6.0%60San Jose Sharks5.0%50Nashville Predators3.5%35St. Louis Blues3.0%30New Jersey Devils2.5%25New York Islanders2.0%20Columbus Blue Jackets1.5%15St. Louis Blues (from DET)0.5%5Washington Capitals0.5%5Courtesy of the NHL<\/p>\n

According to the NHL\u2019s draft lottery rules (in place since the 2022 draft), no team can move up more than 10 positions in the draft order, regardless of which lottery draw they win (for the first or second overall pick).<\/p>\n

This 10-spot cap is a hard limit on any single lottery win. It means:<\/p>\n

Only the bottom 11 teams in the standings (by points, with tiebreakers) are eligible to win the No. 1 overall pick.<\/p>\n

Teams seeded 12th\u201316th can win a lottery draw but are capped at moving up exactly 10 spots (with the lowest-finishing eligible team sliding into the vacated higher position if needed).<\/p>\n

Well, the Devils are the 12th seed, meaning they can select no higher than the second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the worst position to be in, but their chances of moving up 10 spots are low at just 2.5%.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see what Mehta and Co. have in store for the draft, likely dependant on where they fall in the first 12 picks.<\/p>\n

However, with a clear need in the top-six, specifically a left-wing for Jack Hughes<\/a>\u2018 line, it should come as no surprise if Mehta were to move the selection.<\/p>\n

The\u00a02026 NHL Draft Lottery\u00a0will be held on\u00a0Tuesday, May 5. The Draft Lottery will be conducted\u00a0at NHL Network\u2019s Secaucus, N.J., studio, with the event broadcast live on ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports at a time to be announced.<\/p>\n

NHL Central Scouting released its\u00a0final rankings<\/a> for the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft, where Penn State left wing\u00a0Gavin McKenna\u00a0tops the list of North America-based skaters and Frolunda (Swedish Hockey League) left wing\u00a0Ivar Stenberg\u00a0leads all international-based skaters.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is a fully credentialed New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By unpopular demand\u2014at least, from the fans and the media, the 2026 NHL Draft is decentralized once again.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[7704,201,3723,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,591],"class_list":{"0":"post-556781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-2026-nhl-draft","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-devils-news","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-new-jersey","13":"tag-new-jersey-devils","14":"tag-newjersey","15":"tag-newjerseydevils","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-nhl-draft-lottery"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116437949601113787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}