Edmonton Oilers Win the Connor McDavid Sweepstakes, A.K.A. the NHL Draft Lottery
By Rob Perez
He doesn’t carry the hype of LeBron James coming out of St. Vincent-St. Mary, but, Connor McDavid is here — whether you’re ready or not…
Last night: the Edmonton Oilers, the team with the third worst record in the league and only an 11.5% chance of winning the lottery, won it…
…again.
This lottery win marks the fourth time in six years that the Oilers will draft first overall, having drafted Taylor Hall in 2010, Ryan-Nugent Hopkins in 2011, and Nail Yakupov in 2012. However, none of these names compared to the expectations that accompany McDavid.
The Draft Lottery was an incredibly disappointing result for the Buffalo Sabres, who began tanking/liquidating assets during the 2013-14 season, in hopes of drafting McDavid.
The NHL, sensing that the Sabres were not the only franchise who may or may not have been encouraging losing to position themselves for McDavid, changed the draft lottery rules & odds ahead of this year’s draft – thus, instead of a 27% chance of landing the first overall pick, the team with the worst record in the league had only a 20-percent chance at it.
For those who haven’t yet caught a glimpse of this kid play — McDavid is the 18-year-old phenom center for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League. He has 285 points in 166 games in the OHL, and is considered by many as the best NHL prospect since Sidney Crosby in 2005.
Here are some of his career highlights, if you want to see how special this kid really is…
When asked if the Oilers would have any interest in trading the first overall pick, General Manager Craig MacTavish said: “Zero.”