Plot Synopsis

Each year since 1995, the National Hockey League (NHL) has held a draft lottery, which is a weighted system to determine the order of selection for the first picks of the upcoming NHL Draft. The odds of winning the lottery are determined by the teams' regular-season point totals -- except for the 2005 draft lottery, which used a more complicated system to set the order of the entire draft, following the cancellation of the 2004-2005 NHL season. The NHL DRAFT LOTTERY was first televised live in 2005 on TSN, with no coverage in the United States except for live feeds through ESPNews and other such outlets. This annual event was not televised again until 2008, when it was broadcast live on TSN (Canada) and Versus (United States). Versus, now known as NBC Sports, aired live coverage of the event each year through 2014. From 2015-2018, NBC aired the draft during the intermissions of a key playoff game, showing the lottery in separate sessions. In 2019, the event returned as a standalone show on NBCSN, where it aired through 2021. Since 2022, ESPN has televised the draft lottery.

The 2013 NHL DRAFT LOTTERY was held on Monday, April 29, 2013 at 8pm ET, and the 30-minute program was televised live by TSN in Canada and NBC Sports in the United States. The 2013 event was the first in NHL history in which all 14 clubs not qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs -- or the clubs that have acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff teams -- had a chance to win the right to the first overall selection, because the lottery-winning team was granted the first overall pick, unlike previous seasons when the winning team could move up no more than four slots in the draft order.
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On Monday, May 8, 2023 at 8pm ET/5pm PT, ESPN premiered The 2023 NHL DRAFT LOTTERY, featuring host John Buccigross alongside ESPN NHL analysts Mark Messier, Chris Chelios and P.K. Subban.