NEWSLETTER
The 2024 NHL Draft Lottery will take place on May 7, so we have a little more than one week until we know the official order of the top 16 picks in the 2024 NHL Draft. Until then, the Blackhawks own the No. 2 spot in the draft… but they have the second-best odds of landing at No. 1 again.
Because the lottery is looming, let’s have a little mock draft fun this week!
Over the next eight days, I’m going to have a little fun using Tankathon’s Lottery Simulator to determine the top 16 picks in the draft and then roll off what I think the picks could be should the 2024 NHL Draft Lottery unfolds in the same way as their sim. For today’s first attempt, I ran 19 simulations for Jonathan Toews because his birthday was yesterday.
Here’s how Tankathon lined up the lottery after 19 tries:
Well, this is certainly not ideal for the Blackhawks. Ottawa makes the big jump to No. 1 overall and Columbus also wins the lottery, moving up to No. 2 — a worst case scenario for the Blackhawks. So, let’s mock the first 16 picks again using this order.
Note: even though Tankathon hasn’t yet replaced the Coyotes with Utah, I have and will continue to refer to them as Utah TBD.
- Ottawa Senators — Macklin Celebrini, C
- Columbus Blue Jackets — Artyom Levshunov, RHD
- San Jose Sharks — Sam Dickinson, LHD
- Chicago Blackhawks — Cayden Lindstrom, C
- Anaheim Ducks — Carter Yakemchuk, RHD
- Montreal Canadiens — Anton Silayev, LHD
- Utah TBD — Berkly Catton, C
- Seattle Kraken — Zeev Buium, LHD
- Calgary Flames — Ivan Demidov, RW
- New Jersey Devils — Zayne Parekh, RHD
- Buffalo Sabres — Cole Eiserman, LW
- Philadelphia Flyers — Tij Iginla, C/W
- Minnesota Wild — Konsta Helenius, C
- San Jose Sharks (from PIT) — Liam Greentree, RW
- Detroit Red Wings — Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, RW
- St. Louis Blues — Adam Jiricek, RHD
Why Lindstrom to the Blackhawks?
I’ve mocked him to the Blackhawks at No. 2 overall previously and think there’s a chance the Hawks go that direction. He’s a big player (6-4, 216) who plays a legitimate power forward game. In his most recent draft prospect rankings, Corey Pronman at The Athletic said in his notes that he could see Lindstrom moving to the wing at the NHL level and compares him to Rangers forward Chris Kreider. I would sign up for Kreider with Connor Bedard eight days every week!
