The NHL conducted their annual Draft Lottery on Monday night ahead of the Florida Panthers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game, which was game one of the second round.
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An extremely unlikely scenario unfolded and the Anaheim Ducks will be selecting 10th overall at the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, to be held on June 27 in Los Angeles.
The Ducks finished the 2024-25 season with a 35-37-10 record, good enough for 80 points and the eighth-best odds to win the lottery.
The Lottery featured two draws, one for first overall and one for second. The Ducks came into Monday with a 6% chance to win the first overall pick and a 6.2% chance to win the second overall pick. They won neither, and their fifth most likely outcome transpired, as they had a 3.2% chance of dropping to the 10th overall pick.
For the Ducks to drop from eight to ten at the draft lottery, two teams that finished the season with better records had to win the draws. The New York Islanders won this year’s draft lottery with a 3.5% chance, and the Utah Hockey Club won the second draw with a 3.2% chance.
Utah was only eligible to move up a maximum of 10 spots, so they will select fourth. The San Jose Sharks will select second overall.
The 2025 Draft will be the 32nd in franchise history, and they’ve never selected first overall. They’ve never had a first overall pick even on their roster at any point in time.
This will mark the third time the Ducks will have drafted 10th at the NHL Draft. They selected Nick Ritchie 10th in 2014 and Pavel Mintyukov in 2022.
The 2025 draft class isn’t like most years, where there’s a clear-cut prospect at the top of everyone’s (or most everyone’s) list. In 2024, there was no doubt that Macklin Celebrini was going to be taken first. In 2023, there was even less doubt that it was going to be Connor Bedard.
This year, consensus indicates the top selection is between Erie Otters defenseman Matthew Schaefer and Saginaw Spirit forward Michael Misa, with Schaefer seemingly having the edge at this point in time.
After Schaefer and Misa, there’s a cluster of three to five players that draft experts view as the next tier, including forwards James Hagens, Porter Martone, Anton Frondell, and Caleb Desnoyers.
As the annual draft combine nears and subsequent reports leak out, a lot of information will be uncovered.
Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek and assistant general manager/director of amateur scouting Martin Madden have marched to the beat of their own drummer during their three previous drafts together when they selected Pavel Mintyukov (10th overall in 2022), Leo Carlsson (2nd in ’23), and Beckett Sennecke (3rd in ’24). When it comes to the Ducks’ front office duo, it’s best to expect the unexpected at the draft.
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