The NHL draft lottery will be held on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. PT and, for the sixth straight season, the Ducks will be awaiting the draw with bated breath.
Of the 16 teams in the lottery, they have the third-best odds (11.5%) of obtaining the No. 1 overall selection in the June 28-29 NHL entry draft. The San Jose Sharks have a 25.5% chance, while the Chicago Blackhawks have a 13.5% chance.
This was the Ducks’ sixth consecutive campaign missing the playoffs and they last won both a postseason game and series in 2017, when they reached the Western Conference finals. They are the only team in the NHL without a postseason victory of any kind since 2018.
The Ducks have never picked first overall, though they’ve selected second three times and in the top five overall on eight occasions in franchise history.
Last year, they had the worst point total in the NHL and, correspondingly, the best odds at the No. 1 pick, unanimously considered to be generational talent Connor Bedard. The Blackhawks ended up with the top spot (and Bedard), and the Ducks snagged Swedish center Leo Carlsson at No. 2.
There were faint echoes of the Ducks’ previous consolation prize, winger Bobby Ryan. He was selected behind three-time Stanley Cup champion Sidney Crosby, though Ryan turned into a top-six winger and Carlsson’s future at center appeared even brighter than that in his first NHL season.
This year, should the Ducks strike it rich, there’s a consensus No. 1 pick, and then some debate as to who could go next. The Ducks could select anywhere in the top five, depending on which teams win the drawings for the first and second picks.
With that, here is a quick glance of whom they might eye with those selections.
No. 1: Macklin Celebrini, forward, Boston University
Celebrini enters the draft as the consensus No. 1 selection and while he might not have the cachet that Bedard or Crosby had, he’s still more exciting than even some recent consensus No. 1s, like Alexis Lafreniere. Celebrini won the NCAA scoring title with a staggering 64 points in 38 games. He also captured the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s best collegiate player, even as a freshman, edging out his Beanpot rival and the Ducks’ reigning top prospect, Boston College sophomore Cutter Gauthier.
No. 2: Artyom Levshunov, right defenseman, Michigan State
This Belarussian import has taken off on North American ice, progressing through his development at a breakneck pace. Not only is he a very well-rounded two-way defenseman with few discernible holes in his game, he’s one who plays with tremendous energy and a voracious appetite for the puck. He’s also a right-handed shot who would deepen a stable that already includes Tristan Luneau and Noah Warren.
No. 3: Zayne Parekh, right defenseman, Saginaw Spirit (OHL)
Parekh is also a right-handed shot but his game skews heavily toward offense. When the Ducks dealt Jamie Drysdale for an elite forward prospect, they created a void in terms of an elusive, creative and poised right blue-liner. In Parekh, they get a very agile if not blazing fast skater with a bottomless bag of offensive tricks that allowed him to score 96 points in 66 games last season, exceeding the totals of all three of the Ducks’ junior defensemen of the year from the prior campaign.
No. 4: Cayden Lindstrom, center, Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL)
The Ducks are flush at center, such to the point that they’ve started evaluating relocations to the wing for at least two of their four top-10 picks in the middle. But Lindstrom is also the sort of imposing and athletic center who teams covet, in the mold of the Kings’ Quinton Byfield or Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele. He has the size to protect the puck, the mobility to transport it and the skill to do something exciting with it.
No. 5: Cole Eiserman, Winger, Committed to Boston University
The Ducks sorely lacked finishing last season, something that stung them in a couple dozen close contests that became losses. Eiserman has been a goal-scoring machine at both levels of the U.S. development program, averaging more than a goal per game at the USHL and USNTDP levels. There are some polarizing elements to his game but like Montreal’s Cole Caufield he’s an American prospect who can flat out make rubber meet nylon.
