Bruins have 1-percent chance at top pick in lottery

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While it certainly hurts many like a P.K. Subban slash to the wrist to see the Bruins out of the playoffs, there is one upside to falling short of the 16 teams invited to the Stanley Cup playoff dance. The Bruins will be involved in the NHL Draft lottery for the first time since holding Toronto’s first-round picks in 2010 and 2011, and have an extremely outside chance of landing consensus top overall pick, Erie Otters center Connor McDavid.

The NHL Draft lottery will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Toronto just prior to Game 2 between the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins. The Bruins hold a slim 1-percent chance of winning the No. 1 overall pick as the 14th as the final team in the draft lottery after collecting a record-high 96 points for a non-playoff team. By virtue of finishing with the worst record in the league, the Buffalo Sabres have a 20-percent chance of winning the draft lottery and will finish with no lower than the second overall pick.

Here’s how the draft lottery process works: balls numbered 1 to 14 are dropped into a lottery machine that selects four balls with a four-number combination. Those will be matched to a chart containing all possible four-number combinations that have been assigned to each of the 14 teams on the basis of their percentage chance to win the lottery.

For some fun, we ran an NHL Draft lottery simulator online and the Bruins finished with the 14th overall pick five out of five times. Even if the B’s don’t come up with the top with their Hail Mary chance, the Bruins are expected to get a very good player in what’s considered one of the deepest, most talented draft classes in recent years.

McDavid had 44 goals and 120 points in 47 regular-season junior hockey games this season, despite also missing time with a hand injury, is No. 1 in NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of the top North American skaters eligible for the draft. Chelmsford, Mass., native and BU freshman Jack Eichel, winner of the 2015 Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's best player, is ranked as the second-best North American skater available in the draft.

"Every year the ranking order for the NHL draft has the favored candidates and often there are two, three or four names in the mix for consideration to go first overall," said NHL Director of Central Scouting Dan Marr to NHL.com. "But for 2015 it is far more exciting when looking at the two frontrunners because both Eichel and McDavid are remarkable young hockey players.

“A big part of what makes them remarkable is the consistency and results in their level of play. Both continually raised the bar on themselves and met and often exceeded expectations. And for NHL scouts, it has been a treat to watch these two in action."

The NHL made tweaks to the draft lottery process last summer to make it easier for the worst teams to secure the first overall pick, and more difficult for a team like the Bruins to shock the hockey world and somehow garner the No. 1 overall pick. The draft will be held June 26-27 at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., home of the Florida Panthers.

 

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