Lottery day

Today is draft lottery day at WHL head office. I'm not sure exactly what time the lottery takes place, but they'll award the #1 overall bantam pick to either Portland, Red Deer, or Saskatoon. The six non-playoff teams take part in a weighted lottery. Portland gets six balls in the draw, Red Deer gets five, Saskatoon (with Prince George's pick) gets four, Edmonton gets three, Prince Albert gets two, and Saskatoon (with their own pick) gets one.

One ball will be drawn and that team moves up two spots in the draft order - so only the top three teams can possibly pick #1. If Edmonton, Prince Albert, or Saskatoon (with their own pick) win the lottery, they just move up to #2, #3, or #4 overall respectively, and Portland keeps the #1 pick.

So, the chances of picking #1 are:

Portland: 57.1%
Red Deer: 23.8%
Saskatoon: 19.1%

Portland will pick no worse than 2nd, Red Deer no worse than 3rd, etc.

From what I have heard, there's little consensus among the scouts this year about who the #1 prospect is. There's probably 3, 4, 5 players who could take that spot depending on which team has the pick and what they need, etc. So, it's probably not a huge deal if your team is picking #2 or #3 instead of #1 this year.....they could very well still get the player they like best of all.

How about the Blades though.....they are going to have two of the top six picks in the draft for sure, and that Setoguchi trade could end up netting them the #1 overall pick in this draft to go along with Stefan Elliott. I know the Cougars got a nice playoff run last year with Setoguchi, but that is still looking more and more like a really steep price to pay. This deal will be paying handsome rewards for the Blades for the next five years.

UPDATE: Red Deer has won the lottery. So, they will pick #1 and Portland will pick #2. The rest of the top-six order is unchanged at #3 Saskatoon, #4 Edmonton, #5 Prince Albert, and #6 Saskatoon.


In other news today, to nobody's surprise, the first-round series televised on Shaw will be the Vancouver-Chilliwack series.