Saturday saw the league finalize the timing of its upcoming selection lottery for 2026.
Hosted at NHL Network's New Jersey facility, the event is penciled in for Tuesday, the fifth of May, with the precise hour still undetermined. Whoever lands where among the opening 16 selections gets decided here, broadcast live by ESPN, by Sportsnet, and by TVA Sports.
It will be just the second occasion on which the balls get drawn during a live telecast, after the drawing a year ago that ended in victory for New York's Islanders. As individual balls emerge, viewers watch every club's chances move in real time while certain teams drop out.
The NHL announced today that the 2026 #NHLDraft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, May 5 and conducted at NHL Network’s Secaucus, N.J., studio. The event will be broadcast live on @ESPN, @Sportsnet and @TVASports at a time to be announced. More details: <https://t.co/lDjzURqCYp> pic.twitter.com/hw9NsOxNtF — NHL Public Relations (@NHLPR) April 18, 2026
After finishing with the league's worst record at 25-49-8, Vancouver's Canucks hold the best shot — a figure of 18.5 percent — at landing the top draw and the first selection. Washington, on the other hand, owns the joint-longest odds, sitting at 0.5 percent, of winning and vaulting 10 rungs up to the sixth pick overall. Among the lottery's full slate of 1,000 combinations, a mere five belong to the Caps.
Pegged as the likely No. 1 choice is Gavin McKenna, a forward of 18 playing at Penn State University. Over 35 appearances in his debut college year, the Canadian winger compiled 51 points — 15 goals together with 36 helpers — while suiting up for Penn State's Nittany Lions.
Lottery probabilities for 2026
| Combinations | Chance | Club | | --- | --- | --- | | 185 | 18.5% | Canucks (Vancouver) | | 135 | 13.5% | Blackhawks (Chicago) | | 115 | 11.5% | Rangers (N.Y.) | | 95 | 9.5% | Flames (Calgary) | | 85 | 8.5% | Maple Leafs (Toronto) | | 75 | 7.5% | Kraken (Seattle) | | 65 | 6.5% | Jets (Winnipeg) | | 60 | 6.0% | Panthers (Florida) | | 50 | 5.0% | Sharks (San Jose) | | 35 | 3.5% | Predators (Nashville) | | 30 | 3.0% | Blues (St. Louis) | | 25 | 2.5% | Devils (New Jersey) | | 20 | 2.0% | Islanders (N.Y.) | | 15 | 1.5% | Blue Jackets (Columbus) | | 5 | 0.5% | Blues (St. Louis, via Detroit) | | 5 | 0.5% | Capitals (Washington) |
One more storyline to monitor concerns where Toronto's Maple Leafs ultimately land. Slip beyond the top five selections, and their first-rounder ships to Boston's Bruins under a deal struck at the 2025 deadline that brought back rearguard Brandon Carlo. Toronto sits with the fifth-strongest probability of coming out on top.
Buffalo's KeyBank Center will play host to the selection meeting across the 26th and 27th of June. As in recent years, it will be run in decentralized fashion, each club making its picks from its own base.
The league's full statement appears below:
## 2026 NHL Draft Lottery Set For Tuesday, May 5 NEW YORK (April 18, 2026) – The National Hockey League announced today that the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, May 5. The Draft Lottery will be conducted at NHL Network’s Secaucus, N.J., studio, with the event broadcast live on ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports at a time to be announced. This year’s NHL Draft Lottery broadcast will once again feature a LIVE drawing of the lottery balls. Viewers will be able to follow along and learn the results at the same time as the Draft Lottery participants. As each lottery ball is drawn, odds change and teams are eliminated. The viewing audience learns which clubs are still in the running in real time. The 2026 NHL Draft Lottery will determine the order of selection for the first 16 picks in the first round of the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft. Participants are all teams that did not qualify for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs (or the teams that have acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff teams). The Lottery will be conducted in two phases, the first to determine the first overall pick in the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft and the second to determine the second overall pick. There is a limit on the total number of selections (10) a team participating in the Draft Lottery can “move up” in the event it wins one of the Lottery Draws. Thus, only the top 11 seeds will be eligible to receive the first overall Draft pick. \* Under the terms of a March 7, 2025 trade between Toronto and Boston, if Toronto’s 1st-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft is a top 5 pick following the 2026 Draft Lottery, Toronto will instead transfer its 2027 or 2028 1st-round pick to Boston. NHL Central Scouting has released its final rankings for the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft, where Penn State left wing Gavin McKenna tops the list of North America-based skaters and Frolunda (Swedish Hockey League) left wing Ivar Stenberg leads all international-based skaters. The NHL Draft returns to Buffalo for the first time in a decade with the Sabres set to host the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft on Friday, June 26 (Round 1: 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN+, Sportsnet, TVA Sports) and Saturday, June 27 (Rounds 2-7: 10 a.m. ET on NHL Network, ESPN+, Sportsnet) at KeyBank Center.