The Lose for Hughes campaign finally has a winner.
The New Jersey Devils will select the first overall pick in the 2019 NHL entry draft, followed by the New York Rangers. The lottery for the draft pick order was held in Toronto and broadcast on NHL Network in the States and on SportsNet in Canada.
https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/1115778565470027776
The likely first-overall pick in the 2019 draft is US National Development Team center Jack Hughes, who recorded 23 goals and 86 points in 41 games, now the program’s all-time points leader. The consolation prize for the Rangers is the consensus second-best eligible player, Kaapo Kakko, who recently bested Patrick Laine’s Liiga regular-season scoring record.
The Avs, who have qualified for the 2019 playoffs, cheekily tweeted on Tuesday that they had forgotten about their odds, throwing shade at the Senators.
We almost scrolled past this tweet because, ya know, playoffs…
But then we remembered 😏 https://t.co/fGG2KcRjwC
— x- Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) April 9, 2019
Heading into Tuesday, the Colorado Avalanche had the highest chance of winning the first-overall draft pick at 18.5 percent, but surprisingly dropped to fourth. Dating back to last year, the Avs gained the pick thanks to the Matt Duchene deal that sent the Senators’ first-round pick to Avalanche.
The Devils had the third-greatest likelihood of winning the first-overall draft pick. The Devils are the second team in the past five years to jump from the third position to claim the first-overall, the last time that happened was when the Oilers won the lottery in order to pick Connor McDavid in 2015.
This will be the third time in Devils franchise history that the team will be picking first-overall. Most recently, the team selected Nico Hischier first-overall in 2017.
Originally, these were the odds for each team snagging the first overall pick based on their record to end the season:
RETWEET if your team is winning the NHL Draft Lottery today!🤞 pic.twitter.com/Fxsl2AyUfK
— #NHL19 (@EASPORTSNHL) April 9, 2019
A half hour before the draft completed, the top three was somehow leaked.
