{"id":567330,"date":"2026-05-05T08:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/567330\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T08:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:51:15","slug":"nhl-draft-lottery-odds-explained-updated-chances-for-every-team-to-win-gavin-mckenna-sweepstakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/567330\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Draft Lottery odds, explained: Updated chances for every team to win Gavin McKenna sweepstakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

NHL Draft Lottery odds, explained: Updated chances for every team to win Gavin McKenna sweepstakes<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the NHL Playoffs underway, those who fell short of this year’s postseason will be tuning into an event catered to them.<\/p>\n

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The 2026 NHL Draft Lottery will take place on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET just prior to when the puck drops in the Minnesota Wild<\/a> vs. Colorado Avalanche<\/a> Game 2. In this year’s draft, the consensus No. 1 overall pick will be Penn State’s Gavin McKenna.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver Canucks<\/a>, Chicago Blackhawks<\/a>, and New York Rangers<\/a> are all teams to look out for to land the prodigy. Or, he may land elsewhere with a long-shot team.<\/p>\n

Here’s who has the best shot of landing Penn State’s star, or the No. 2 pick right after his name is called.<\/p>\n

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NHL PLAYOFFS HQ:Live NHL scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NHL playoff schedule<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NHL playoff bracket<\/a><\/p>\n

How does the NHL Draft Lottery work?<\/p>\n

Each team’s odds in the 2026 draft lottery represent that team’s chances of moving up in the lottery. However, only the teams with the 11 lowest-point total teams in the league can earn the No. 1 overall pick, as teams can only rise 10 spots in the lottery.<\/p>\n

During the NHL Draft lottery, a machine is equipped with 14 ping pong balls that can land in 1,001 different outcomes. Each team will receive a value of four-digit combinations that translate to its odds of winning the lottery multiplied by 10. The team with the best odds has 185 possible four-digit combinations, or an 18.5% chance, to win the lottery.<\/p>\n

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The teams with the 12th-16th best odds can only pick as high as 2-6 if they “win” the lottery. After the first overall pick’s lottery, there will then be another draw for the second overall pick. Teams 13-16 can only jump up to picks 3-6, so if any of those teams win, the team with the next best odds will select second.<\/p>\n

The NHL lottery odds are equipped with a reverse-standings order. The best team to miss the playoffs, this year’s Washington Capitals<\/a>, will have the lowest odds to move up in the lottery.<\/p>\n

Last season, despite having only a 3.5% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, the New York Islanders<\/a> defied the odds and landed the prize of the lottery. The Islanders had the 10th-lowest odds to win the lottery, but were able to draft consensus No. 1 pick Canadian defenseman Matthew Schaefer.<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0How did the Canadiens win despite having a record-low amount of shots in Game 7?<\/a><\/p>\n

NHL Draft lottery odds 2026<\/p>\n

As seen in last season’s lottery, the odds might not reflect what actually happens in the event. Along with last year’s Islanders, the Rangers had a mere 2% chance of landing the top pick in the 2020 Draft. Several ping pong ball bounces later, they landed the highly sought-after No. 1 pick that went on to be Alexis Lafreniere.<\/p>\n

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This year, the Vancouver Canucks have the best chance of winning the lottery. After Vancouver, the Chicago Blackhawks (13.5%) and the New York Rangers (11.5%). Here is how the odds look for the 12 teams.<\/p>\n

Here’s a complete look at every team’s lottery odds and who has the best chance to win the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes.<\/p>\n

Team<\/p>\n

Odds<\/p>\n

Vancouver Canucks<\/p>\n

18.5%<\/p>\n

Chicago Blackhawks<\/p>\n

13.5%<\/p>\n

New York Rangers<\/p>\n

11.5%<\/p>\n

Calgary Flames<\/p>\n

9.5%<\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs<\/p>\n

8.5%<\/p>\n

Seattle Kraken<\/p>\n

7.5%<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Jets<\/p>\n

6.5%<\/p>\n

Florida Panthers<\/p>\n

6.0%<\/p>\n

San Jose Sharks<\/p>\n

5.0%<\/p>\n

Nashville Predators<\/p>\n

3.5%<\/p>\n

St. Louis Blues<\/p>\n

3.0%<\/p>\n

New Jersey Devils<\/p>\n

2.5%<\/p>\n

New York Islanders<\/p>\n

2.0%<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets<\/p>\n

1.5%<\/p>\n

St. Louis Blues (via DET)<\/p>\n

0.5%<\/p>\n

Washington Capitals<\/p>\n

0.5%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL Draft Lottery odds, explained: Updated chances for every team to win Gavin McKenna sweepstakes originally appeared on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[304,26,265,96,144,230,57,766,5,14752,38,231,151,159,35,4,465,591,466,2972,60,168,234,84,130,66,27,109,18],"class_list":["post-567330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-draft","tag-alexis-lafreniere","tag-calgary-flames","tag-canadiens","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-florida-panthers","tag-gavin-mckenna","tag-hockey","tag-lottery-odds","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nashville-predators","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft","tag-nhl-draft-lottery","tag-nhl-entry-draft","tag-nhl-playoff-schedule","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-seattle-kraken","tag-st-louis-blues","tag-team","tag-toronto","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-washington-capitals","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567330","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=567330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}