The Vancouver Canucks and Seattle Kraken couldn’t win for losing.
Despite Vancouver finishing in the NHL basement with 58 points, and Seattle 6th worst with 79, neither won either of the two draws at Tuesday’s NHL Draft Lottery.
The Canucks didn’t benefit from top odds (18.5%) of winning the lottery, actually dropping from 1st to 3rd overall in the 1st round. Even having the Sedin Twins in Vancouver for the proceedings didn’t help. (Vancouver couldn’t be represented by their general manager, since they currently don’t have one.)
The Kraken (7.5% chance) dropped one spot to 7th overall. In rounds 2-7, Vancouver will retain the top pick and Seattle the 6th.
The Toronto Maple Leafs moved up from 5th to grab the top overall selection. A second draw was won by the San Jose Sharks, who will pick 2nd overall at next month’s Draft.
Sharks GM Mike Grier, shown immediately after his team moved up, surprisingly looked more like he was being held hostage than winning the chance to add to his talented young core.
For each draw, ping-pong balls numbered 1-14 bounced noisily (think popcorn popper) around a lottery machine before emerging, one at a time, up a chute. Teams were assigned four-number combinations.
Both Pacific North neighbours were in the running until the end. After two ping-pong balls of the first draw, Seattle’s chances zoomed north of 18%. After three balls, the Canucks had better than a 27% chance. Seattle needed the final number to be 4, Vancouver 1, 6, or 13. Unfortunately, it came up 12.
Canucks, Kraken Hear Sad Trombone
The Kraken and Canucks have every right to feel like that person in the famous eight-panel comic strip, advancing from infancy through adolescence and adulthood to old age and then declaring, “Well, that sucked.”
As many past lotteries have shown, teams with the best odds don’t usually obtain the first pick. Last year, the New York Islanders moved all the way up from 10th to number one.
With few free-agent difference makers headed to market this summer and homegrown prospect pools slow-developing, the lottery provided hope of landing a young stud to lead the Kraken or Canucks out of mediocrity. Like the Islanders got with Matthew Schaefer in 2025. Like the Sharks got with Macklin Celebrini in 2024. Like the Chicago Blackhawks got with Connor Bedard in 2023.
Alas, for Vancouver and Seattle, it wasn’t to be.
Words Of Encouragement
The consensus top two draft eligible players are both wingers, Penn State’s Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg from Sweden. This anomaly provides an unexpected ray of sunshine to the Kraken and Canucks, according to Cory Schneider of NHL Network.
“I don’t know if this is a great year to have the number one pick. Wingers are at the top of the draft. For me, you build through centers and defensemen.
“It’s hard to win a Stanley Cup with a winger picked number one overall. (Alex) Ovechkin and (Patrick) Kane are the only ones to have done it in recent memory. I think it’s almost better to be in that 3-10 range; there’s a lot of depth and good players there.”
Getting Defensive
According to NHL.com, many of those good players likely to be available with picks three (Canucks) and seven (Kraken) are blueliners.
“After McKenna and Stenberg, there are five defensemen, each projected as a franchise-defining NHL player along the blue line down the road.
“In that mix are Chase Reid of Sault Ste. Marie in the Ontario Hockey League, Carson Carels of Prince George in the WHL, Keaton Verhoeff of the University of North Dakota, Daxon Rudolph of Prince Albert (WHL), and Alberts Smits of Munchen in Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the top professional league in Germany.”
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