The Ottawa Senators will likely choose seventh or eighth in the 2024 Draft, but they also have a chance, albeit a small one, at the number one overall selection.
The NHL has announced the date for their 2024 Draft Lottery and Ottawa Senators fans won't have to wait very long for it.
The lottery will be held on May 7th at the NHL Network in New Jersey (Sportsnet, TVAS). The event will nail down the draft order for the 16 clubs that failed to make the playoffs. That includes the Senators, who enter the lottery with the seventh-best chance (6.5%) of getting the first overall selection.
In nutshell, there's roughly an 81% chance the Sens will draft either 7th or 8th and about a 13% chance they win the right to choose in the top two.
If you want to go deeper, the Sens have a 44.4% chance of selecting 7th; a 36.5% chance of 8th; a 6.7% chance of going second, a 6.5% chance of going first, a 5.6% chance of going 9th and a 0.2% chance of drafting third.
Teams only can move up by a maximum of 10 selections, so only the top 11 teams in the lottery are eligible to land the number one pick. Once the two top picks are established, the remaining teams will be assigned picks 3 through 16, based on the reverse order of the regular-season standings.
San Jose has the best odds of winning the first overall pick at 18.5 percent. The Chicago Blackhawks will have the second-best odds at 13.5 percent.
Boston University's Macklin Celebrini is everybody's number one, and most people think Ivan Demidov is number two. But once you hit number three, opinions vary wildly.
Celebrini had 32 goals and 64 points in just 38 games for Terriers this season. He'll be the first Boston U prospect to go in the top five at the NHL Draft since the Senators selected Brady Tkachuk fourth in 2018.
GM Steve Staios has said that early in the draft, he plans to take the best player available and then perhaps draft by positional need later on. That said, there are some good defencemen in the top 15, which is a big need.
Depending on which mock draft you subscribe to, some of the top players after Celebrini include: Ivan Demidov, Cayden Lindstrom, Cole Eiserman, Artyom Levshunov, Zeev Buium, Berkly Catton, Zayne Parekh, Anton Silayev, Sam Dickinson, Tij Iginla and Konsta Helenius.
Given how bare the Sens prospect cupboard is right now, the player they select will shoot right to the top of their list of prospects.
New ownership's motto has been to be "best in class" and that might (and probably should) include bringing the young player along slowly, letting him develop properly until he's physically and mentally mature, and ready to be a good pro.
The 2024 NHL Entry Draft is expected to be held in late June in Las Vegas.
Odds to win the 2024 NHL Draft Lottery:
San Jose Sharks
18.5%
Chicago Blackhawks
13.5%
Anaheim Ducks
11.5%
Columbus Blue Jackets
9.5%
Montreal Canadiens
8.5%
Utah No Names
7.5%
Ottawa Senators
6.5%
Seattle Kraken
6.0%
Calgary Flames
5.0%
New Jersey Devils
3.5%
Buffalo Sabres
3.0%
Philadelphia Flyers
2.5%
Minnesota Wild
2.0%
Pittsburgh Penguins *
1.5%
Detroit Red Wings
0.5%
St. Louis Blues
0.5%