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Draft lottery rules you should know before the Canucks test their luck

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
|
May 4 2026, 10:17 pm
Draft lottery rules you should know before the Canucks test their luck
@Canucks/X

The Vancouver Canucks hold the best odds of winning the first overall pick in Tuesday’s NHL Draft Lottery.

Two draws will take place. The first will determine who receives the first-overall pick, while the second will determine who picks in spot number two.

After finishing dead last in the NHL standings this season with only 25 wins, the Canucks have a 25.5 per cent chance at landing the first-overall pick and an 18.8 per cent shot at second.

At worst, they will pick third overall (55.7 per cent). It all comes down to how the ping pong balls shake out on Tuesday night.

draft lottery odds nhl

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In total, there are 1,000 possible outcomes from the four ping pong balls that will be drawn. The Canucks, due to finishing last place, have the most combinations assigned with 185.

You can only move up a maximum of 10 spots, so if one of the teams slotted in the 12-16 range were to win the lottery, the Canucks would still receive the first-overall pick.

The NHL changed the way its draft lottery program looked on television last year, doing away with the dramatic card-turning reveal from deputy commissioner Bill Daly. That will once again be the case, as the league holds the live drawing of numbers.

That means if any of the following combinations of numbers pop up, the Canucks will have won:

 

The lottery takes place this Tuesday, beginning at 4 p.m. PDT. It will be available to watch on television and stream online, via Sportsnet.

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