Bruins’ Don Sweeney vocal on 2025 NHL Draft Lottery slide

The 2025 NHL Draft Lottery took place on Monday night before the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers kicked off the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was a rather stunning outcome, as well. The Boston Bruins slipped in the top 10, as many other teams did. In the end, it was the New York Islanders who landed the first overall pick.

This is certainly an unfortunate outcome for Boston. The Bruins are looking for a head coach after a disastrous season. Having a top five pick would have been a great selling point. Instead, Boston will pick seventh overall. And general manager Don Sweeney has already found a bit of a silver lining.

“Well, I mean, we’re still picking in the upper echelon of the draft, which we haven’t done for a significant time period,” Sweeney said Monday night, via Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub. “So, we feel very comfortable in terms of where the top seven picks are and we’ll get a good player and an impact player, regardless of the disappointment of moving back a couple spots. That’s just the nature of the lottery.”

The Islanders jumped nine spots to earn the first overall pick. However, what was truly backbreaking for Boston was what happened during the draw for the second overall pick. This was won by the Utah Hockey Club, but there was a catch. Utah had the 14th highest odds of winning a lottery draw, and teams can only jump 10 spots in the NHL Draft Lottery.

Utah jumped from 14 to the fourth overall pick as a result. The San Jose Sharks — the team with the best odds of winning the lottery — fell to No. 2. Utah jumping up caused the Bruins to drop two spots from fifth overall to the seventh overall selection.

The Bruins will still have a chance to add a potential high-impact player. Still, for a team in flux, this slide could sting for a year or two. It will certainly be interesting to see what Boston does when the draft rolls around in late June.