NHL Draft Lottery 2023: Full Odds for Ducks, More Ahead of Connor Bedard Sweepstakes
The Anaheim Ducks finished out the 2022-23 regular season with a win, by losing.
By dropping their season finale 5-3 to the visiting Los Angeles Kings, the Ducks clinched a 1-in-4 chance of selecting Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick.
Visiting fans weren't the only ones chanting "Go, Kings, Go" in Honda Center on Thursday night. Ducks supporters want to see Bedard, billed as the first "generational" talent to hit the draft since Connor McDavid, in Anaheim next year.
In 57 games for the Regina Pats, Bedard racked up 71 goals and 143 points this WHL season. He turns 18 in July.
His ability to read plays, deadly release and deft hands made him nearly unbeatable in the WHL. By next fall, Regina head coach John Paddock thinks Bedard will be ready to bring that offensive firepower to the big league.
"The details to prepare for the game and get focused for, say, a road trip, he would have that," Paddock told NHL.com's Aaron Vickers in February. "That's not going to change. There's going to be an adaptation for him for bigger, faster, stronger, but clearly he's on top of the charts as a 17-year-old in our league. I think that's pretty hard to argue."
As the 32nd-ranked team, the Ducks will now have a 25.5 percent shot at getting to see Bedard adapt to the NHL in Anaheim.
The 2023 NHL Draft Lottery will take place May 8 at 7 p.m. ET. Separate lotteries will be held for each of the first two picks. Teams can move up a maximum of 10 spots.
Here are the final odds for each team to get the top two picks, according to Tankathon.
No. 1 pick lottery odds
- Anaheim Ducks: 25.5%
- Columbus Blue Jackets: 13.5%
- Chicago Blackhawks: 11.5%
- San Jose Sharks: 9.5%
- Montréal Canadiens: 8.5%
- Arizona Coyotes: 7.5%
- Philadelphia Flyers: 6.5%
- Washington Capitals: 6.0%
- Detroit Red Wings: 5.0%
- St. Louis Blues: 3.5%
- Vancouver Canucks: 3.0%
No. 2 pick lottery odds
- Anaheim Ducks: 18.8%
- Columbus Blue Jackets: 14.4%
- Chicago Blackhawks: 11.5%
- San Jose Sharks: 9.8%
- Montréal Canadiens: 8.8%
- Arizona Coyotes: 7.9%
- Philadelphia Flyers: 6.9%
- Washington Capitals: 6.4%
- Detroit Red Wings: 5.4%
- St. Louis Blues: 3.8%
- Vancouver Canucks: 3.3%
- Ottawa Senators: 2.9%
The Pittsburgh Penguins, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2005-06 after losing their last two games of the season to the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets, derailed both teams' best shot at the top pick by granting them late-season wins.
Those two victories allowed the Ducks, which lost 13 games straight to end the 2022-23 campaign, to settle comfortably into last place and the best shot at Bedard.
The Blue Jackets then edged out Chicago for the second-best odds on the last day of the season by losing 5-2 in regulation to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.
This is the second year that the NHL has restricted how many spots a team can move up with a lottery win. Large jumps like in 2017, when the Philadelphia Flyers moved up from 13th to second to select Nolan Patrick, are no longer possible.
That's not to say the places are set in stone. Last year the New Jersey Devils, which entered the lottery ranked fifth, moved up to snag defenseman Simon Nemec with the second selection.
In a draft lottery as strong as this one, with both Bedard and Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Fantilli, the projected No. 2 pick, looking like immediate game-changers, a jump like that has the potential to shape a franchise's future.
