On Monday night, the National Hockey League conducted the 2025 NHL Draft Lottery. The San Jose Sharks led the way with a 25.5 percent chance of winning. The Chicago Blackhawks were in second with a 13.5 percent chance.
Any team could only move up a max of 10 spots. For the Blackhawks, that meant that they could pick anywhere from 1-4.
The first draw led to the New York Islanders winning the first overall pick. They jumped up from 10 to earn this selection. New York will pick first for the first time since 2009 when they selected John Tavares.
The second lottery went to the Utah Hockey Club, so they will jump up from 14 to 4. That means that the Sharks will go down to 2 and the Blackhawks will drop to 3.
This will be the third year in a row that Chicago will make a draft pick in the top three. In 2023, they took Connor Bedard first overall, and they took Artyom Levshunov second in 2024.
A lot of conversations will take place in regards to who Chicago will select with this pick. There are some great options as players like Michael Misa, Matthew Schaefer, James Hagens, and Porter Martone are projected to go in the top four.
The first round of the 2025 NHL Draft will begin on June 26th, 2025.
