Rumor: NHL has set a date for the Draft Lottery.

The date appears set.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Rumor: NHL has set a date for the Draft Lottery.
Keystone Press

The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players Association agreed last week to move forward with a 24 team playoff format that will see a the largest number of teams ever competing for the Stanley Cup in a single tournament. I must admit I am very excited at the prospect and while that is great news for the 24 teams who get to participate, the other 7 teams that had rather poor seasons this time around have been left a little empty handed in my estimation.

As a result many over the weekend began to speculate that the NHL could look to hold the draft ;ottery sooner rather than later to give those teams and their respective fan bases something to look forward to during this shut down, and now it appears that will in fact become a reality. Although nothing has been made official just yet, NHL insider Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports is now reporting that his sources have informed him that the date for the lottery has in fact been set. 

Lavoie reports that the date for draft lottery will be the 26 of June, almost exactly one month away from the time of this writing, although we still do not have all the details on how that lottery will proceed. We did hear reports that the lottery would be modified as part of the NHL's plans to resume the season after this unexpected stoppage, but there was a ton of criticism and pushback when those plans were announced because of just how heavily they weighed the lottery in favor of both the Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators respectively. It may very well be that the NHL intends to continue moving forward with this rumored plan for the draft lottery, but we will have to wait for an official announcement on those details.

For those of you wondering if this means that we will still be getting an early draft, it doesn't look like that at the moment. According to Lavoie no dates have been set for the draft proper yet, which would appear to indicate that the plans for that event have yet to be solidified.


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