HabsWorld.net -- 

The ping pong balls have been drawn and the Habs now know where their first selection will fall at the draft in June.  While they didn’t land the top spot, they did move up to third overall.

Heading into the night, Montreal was the only team that a shot at picking anywhere between first and seventh overall as a result of finishing fourth last in the NHL.  Their opening odds were as follows:

1st Overall: 9.5%
2nd Overall: 9.6%
3rd Overall: 9.7%
4th Overall: 2.8%
5th Overall: 26.1%
6th Overall: 34%
7th Overall: 8.3%

For those that don’t know how the lottery process goes, four numbers are drawn at random between 1 and 14.  Whichever team has that four digit combination wins.  That process is then repeated for the second and third selections.  From there, the remaining spots are then based on the regular season standings in reverse order.  The specific number combinations can be found here.

The number combinations drawn yielded Buffalo, Carolina, and Montreal as the three winners.  The big shock among those three was Carolina who finished 11th last during the regular season which gave them pretty weak odds.  They landed the number two pick while Buffalo finally managed to hold onto the top selection this time around.

Montreal’s placement takes them out of the sweepstakes for Rasmus Dahlin but there are still some notable wingers on the table.  Barrie’s Andrei Svechnikov lit up the OHL with 40 goals in just 44 games while Filip Zadina of the Halifax Mooseheads also was quite impressive, tallying 44 times in just 57 contests.  They are the consensus second and third prospects with most placing Svechnikov as the best winger on the board.  Brady Tkachuk of Boston University may also garner some attention as a true power forward but his offensive upside isn’t as strong as Svechnikov and Zadina.

After waiting this long to find out where they will pick, the wait to see who will be selected will be even longer as the 2018 NHL Entry Draft isn’t until June 22nd.