The National Hockey League won’t be making any changes to the Draft Lottery format.
“There was no sentiment to make a change right now,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told The Canadian Press following the third and final day of the GM’s meetings in Boca Raton, Florida on Wednesday.
The NHL modified the lottery system two years ago, enacting changes that lowered the odds of winning for the league’s worst teams.
The Edmonton Oilers have drafted first in four of the past six years, including winning the lottery to select Connor McDavid in 2015.
It’ll undergo further changes this year.
A weighted system is used to determine the order for the first round of the 2016 NHL Draft.
Beginning in 2016, the Draft Lottery will be used to assign the top three draft picks in the NHL draft. This is an expansion of the previous system in which the Draft Lottery was used to determine the first overall pick.
Under the new system, three draws will be held. The first draw will determine the NHL team selecting first overall, while the second and third draws will determine the second and third overall picks, respectively.
The team earning the fewest points during the regular season will no longer be guaranteed, at worst, the second overall pick.
The odds for the first lottery draw remain the same as that of the 2015 NHL Draft. The non-playoff team with the fewest points will have a 20.0 percent chance of drafting first overall, while the second non-playoff team with the fewest points will have a 13.5 percent chance. The third non-playoff team with the fewest points will have an 11.5 percent chance.
The odds for the remaining teams will increase proportionally for the second and third lottery draws.
The 11 remaining teams will be assigned draft positions based on inverse order of regular season points.