Draft Lottery Tonight
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2010 NHL Draft Lottery logoOver half the league is preparing for the playoffs which finally start tomorrow. Best time of year for hockey fans! Meanwhile, the LG NHL Draft Lottery takes place tonight at 8 eastern.
It will be televised live on Versus in the U.S. and even has its own logo and sponsorship. A bit odd, but I guess it's a spectacle now that it's on TV. I want my Draft Lottery 2010 t-shirt now.
So who's up for that No. 1 pick? The best my Lightning can do is No. 2 after finishing 25th overall. Edmonton (25%), Boston (18.8%), Florida (14.2%), Columbus (10.7%) and the Islanders (8.1%) have a chance. Anyone else wins the lottery and the top pick goes to the Oilers automatically.
So why is Boston so high? Despite finishing with the 6th spot in the playoffs, they did trade Phil Kessel to the Maple Leafs this season in exchange for their 1st round picks this year and in 2011. Too bad for Toronto.
If you're unable to watch the drawing, check back later tonight as I do plan on posting the selection order. Any excuse to post a list of NHL logos, I guess.
Okay, so I did something I don't usually do and knowing most of you, it's not going to be popular, but I'm used to it by now. I've injected my pathetic, ill-informed opinion into the blog, cobbled together from the CSS ranking and other random things I've read. Feel free to ignore it or tell me why I'm wrong.
Otherwise, below is a list of the teams getting the top 14 picks at the L.A. draft in June. Also included in the table is an at-a-glance look at where each team was placed in last year's draft and who they took in Round 1. TMI? Maybe.
| Draft Rank | Team | My Lame Prediction 2009 1st round picks | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 1 | Edmonton Oilers | Taylor Hall(10) Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson |
 | 2 | Boston Bruins | Tyler Seguin(25) Jordan Caron |
 | 3 | Florida Panthers | Cam Fowler(14) Dmitri Kulikov |
 | 4 | Columbus Blue Jackets | Brett Connolly(21) John Moore |
 | 5 | New York Islanders | Erik Gudbranson(1) John Tavares (12) Calvin de Haan |
 | 6 | Tampa Bay Lightning | Mark Pysyk(2) Victor Hedman (29) Carter Ashton |
 | 7 | Carolina Hurricanes | Emerson Etem(27) Philippe Paradis |
 | 8 | Atlanta Thrashers | Brandon Gormley(4) Evander Kane |
 | 9 | Minnesota Wild | Ryan Johansen(16) Nick Leddy |
 | 10 | New York Rangers | Derek Forbort(19) Chris Kreider |
 | 11 | Dallas Stars | Austin Watson(8) Scott Glennie |
 | 12 | Anaheim Ducks | Alexander Burmistrov(15) Peter Holland (26) Kyle Palmieri |
 | 13 | Phoenix Coyotes | Nino Niederreiter(6) Oliver Ekman-Larsson |
 | 14 | St. Louis Blues | Stanislav Galiev(17) David Rundblad |