Winners, losers of NHL draft lottery 2024: Sharks land top pick, right to select Macklin Celebrini
The San Jose Sharks landed the first pick in the 2024 NHL draft during Tuesday night’s lottery and the right to select Boston University standout Macklin Celebrini in June.
The Sharks finished last overall and had 18.5% odds to win the pick. They will select first for the first time in franchise history. The Chicago Blackhawks, last year’s lottery winner, will get the second pick as no team moved up in the lottery.
Celebrini, 17, a 6-foot, 190-pound freshman center, had 32 goals and 32 assists in 38 games to lead the Terriers to the Frozen Four, where they lost to eventual champion Denver in the semifinals. He won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top men’s player, plus was voted Hockey East’s top player and rookie.
Boston University forward Macklin Celebrini is the consensus No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NHL draft.
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Here is the draft order and winners and losers after the lottery:
What is first round order of NHL draft after lottery?
- San Jose Sharks
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Anaheim Ducks
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Montreal Canadiens
- Utah
- Ottawa Senators
- Seattle Kraken
- Calgary Flames
- New Jersey Devils
- Buffalo Sabres
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Minnesota Wild
- San Jose Sharks (pick acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins)
- Detroit Red Wings
- St. Louis Blues
The rest of the first-round order is determined by regular season record and playoff results.
DRAFT LOTTERY WINNERS
San Jose Sharks
Celebrini isn’t Connor Bedard, but he’s a high-end, skilled offensive player whom the Sharks can build around, a nice reward for a historically bad season. Sharks general manager Mike Grier, a former Boston University standout, will get to draft a fellow Terrier with the top pick. And with the Penguins not winning one of the top two picks, the Sharks gets Pittsburgh’s first-round pick at 14th overall.
Macklin Celebrini’s parents
Macklin’s father, Rick, works up the road as the Golden State Warriors’ vice president of player health and performance. Another son, Aiden, is a Vancouver Canucks prospect. Everyone stays on the West Coast.
NHL draft
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made it official that the draft will be held at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The high-tech venue should make for an impressive night.
DRAFT LOTTERY LOSERS
Lack of drama
No team moved up or down, unlike last year when the Blackhawks moved up two spots. The last-place team has landed the top pick in three of the last four drafts.
Chicago Blackhawks
If they had moved up for a second consecutive year, Bedard and Celebrini down the road would have made a good 1-2 punch like the team once had with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. There’s no clear-cut No. 2 prospect, but the Blackhawks will get an elite player regardless.
Zillow
When ESPN announcer John Buccigross asked Celebrini if he had been on the real-estate site Zillow to see where he might live, the prospect responded, “Wait, what’s Zillow?”
Who are the top NHL draft prospects?
Celebrini is the consensus No. 1 pick and has been all season.
“He possesses that rare, elite ability to thrive with his skills and smarts while competing with a consistent passion to face every challenge head-on and generate results, all the while making himself a better player,” said Dan Marr, vice president of NHL Central Scouting.
There is no consensus No. 2 pick. The draft is deep in defensemen.
Here is how NHL Central Scouting ranks the top 10 North American prospects and top five international prospects.
North American prospects: Boston University center Macklin Celebrini, Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov, Medicine Hat center Cayden Lindstrom, Denver defenseman Zeev Buium, Saginaw defenseman Zayne Parekh, Tri-City winger Trevor Connelly, London defenseman Sam Dickinson, Spokane center Berkly Catton, Kelowna center Tij Iginla (son of Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla) and Chicago center Michael Hage.
International prospects: Russian 6-7 defenseman Anton Silayev, Russian winger Ivan Demidov, Finnish center Konsta Helenius, Czech defenseman Adam Jiricek and Swedish winger Michael Brandsegg-Nygard.
When and where is the NHL draft?
The NHL draft will be June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
How does the draft lottery work?
There are two drawings, first for a chance at the top pick and then for a chance at the second pick. Winning teams can move up only 10 spots. The last-place team can draft no lower than third overall. Beginning with the 2022 lottery, a team cannot win more than twice in a five-year period. There are 14 ping-pong balls in the machine and each team is assigned a series of four numbers. The lower a team is in the standings, the more series of numbers it gets.
The Sharks won with the combination of 2-7-10-11 while the Blackhawks got the second pick with the combination of 3-6-11-14.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Winners, losers of NHL draft lottery 2024: Sharks land top pick, right to select Macklin Celebrini