The NHL announced the date for the 2026 Draft Lottery on Saturday.
The event, held at NHL Network’s New Jersey studio, will take place on Tuesday, May 5, with the exact time still to be determined. The lottery will determine the order of the first 16 picks in the draft and will be aired live on ESPN, Sportsnet, and TVA Sports.
This year’s lottery will be the second to showcase a live drawing of the lottery balls after the New York Islanders were the victors last year. As each lottery ball is drawn, viewers will see the odds for each team change, and specific teams get eliminated.
The Vancouver Canucks, finishing with a league-worst 25-49-8 record, will have the best odds, 18.5 percent, at winning the lottery and selecting first overall. The Washington Capitals have the joint-worst odds, 0.5 percent, to win and move up 10 spots to the sixth-overall pick. The Caps will own only five combinations out of the 1,000 in the lottery.
Gavin McKenna, an 18-year-old forward from Penn State University, is the likely number-one overall selection. The Canadian winger recorded 51 points (15g, 36a) in 35 games for the Nittany Lions in his freshman campaign.
2026 NHL Draft Lottery Odds
| Team | Odds | Combinations |
|---|---|---|
| Vancouver Canucks | 18.5% | 185 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 13.5% | 135 |
| New York Rangers | 11.5% | 115 |
| Calgary Flames | 9.5% | 95 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 8.5% | 85 |
| Seattle Kraken | 7.5% | 75 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 6.5% | 65 |
| Florida Panthers | 6.0% | 60 |
| San Jose Sharks | 5.0% | 50 |
| Nashville Predators | 3.5% | 35 |
| St. Louis Blues | 3.0% | 30 |
| New Jersey Devils | 2.5% | 25 |
| New York Islanders | 2.0% | 20 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 1.5% | 15 |
| St. Louis Blues (from DET) | 0.5% | 5 |
| Washington Capitals | 0.5% | 5 |
Another storyline to follow will be where the Toronto Maple Leafs end up. If they move out of the top five picks, they will send their first-round selection to the Boston Bruins as part of a 2025 trade deadline deal for defenseman Brandon Carlo. The Leafs own the fifth-best odds at winning the lottery.
The 2026 NHL Draft will take place in Buffalo at the KeyBank Center on June 26-27. The draft will again be decentralized, with teams making picks from their home bases.
Here’s the press release from the league:
2026 NHL Draft Lottery Set For Tuesday, May 5
NEW YORK (April 18, 2026) – The National Hockey League announced today that the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, May 5. The Draft Lottery will be conducted at NHL Network’s Secaucus, N.J., studio, with the event broadcast live on ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports at a time to be announced.
This year’s NHL Draft Lottery broadcast will once again feature a LIVE drawing of the lottery balls. Viewers will be able to follow along and learn the results at the same time as the Draft Lottery participants. As each lottery ball is drawn, odds change and teams are eliminated. The viewing audience learns which clubs are still in the running in real time.
The 2026 NHL Draft Lottery will determine the order of selection for the first 16 picks in the first round of the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft. Participants are all teams that did not qualify for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs (or the teams that have acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff teams).
The Lottery will be conducted in two phases, the first to determine the first overall pick in the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft and the second to determine the second overall pick. There is a limit on the total number of selections (10) a team participating in the Draft Lottery can “move up” in the event it wins one of the Lottery Draws. Thus, only the top 11 seeds will be eligible to receive the first overall Draft pick.
* Under the terms of a March 7, 2025 trade between Toronto and Boston, if Toronto’s 1st-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft is a top 5 pick following the 2026 Draft Lottery, Toronto will instead transfer its 2027 or 2028 1st-round pick to Boston.
NHL Central Scouting has released its final rankings for the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft, where Penn State left wing Gavin McKenna tops the list of North America-based skaters and Frolunda (Swedish Hockey League) left wing Ivar Stenberg leads all international-based skaters.
The NHL Draft returns to Buffalo for the first time in a decade with the Sabres set to host the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft on Friday, June 26 (Round 1: 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN+, Sportsnet, TVA Sports) and Saturday, June 27 (Rounds 2-7: 10 a.m. ET on NHL Network, ESPN+, Sportsnet) at KeyBank Center.
