2024 NHL Mock Draft: Lottery Simulator Fun — Episode Three

The 2024 NHL Draft Lottery takes place tonight! Which means, at this time tomorrow, we will know the order of the first 16 selections in the 2024 NHL Draft — and then we can crank up our mock draft scenarios with some sincerity. But for now, we’re playing in hypotheticals.

Before the fun of the lottery tonight, I’ve been putting together some abbreviated mock drafts using Tankathon’s Lottery Simulator to determine the top of the draft.

For today’s third and final run, I ran the simulator six (6) times for the number of championships the Blackhawks have won (so far). Here’s how the sim landed on roll number six:

Statistically, this represents perhaps the most likely outcome for the Blackhawks in the lottery tonight. Chicago owns the second-best odds of landing at No. 1 again, but that comes with a 71.4 percent chance they move down in the draft. In this scenario, Montreal wins big and jumps into the second spot in front of the Blackhawks, moving Chicago down to the third overall pick.

As a reminder, while Tankathon still has Arizona in their simulator I’m referring to that franchise as Utah TBD moving forward.

Here’s my first 16 picks in a mock draft using this draft order:

1. San Jose Sharks — Macklin Celebrini, C
2. Montreal Canadiens — Ivan Demidov, RW
3. Chicago Blackhawks — Artyom Levshunov, RHD
4. Anaheim Ducks — Anton Silayev, LHD
5. Columbus Blue Jackets — Berkly Catton, C
6. Utah TBD — Sam Dickinson, LHD
7. Ottawa Senators — Cayden Lindstrom, C
8. Seattle Kraken — Zeev Buium, LHD
9. Calgary Flames — Tij Iginla, C/W
10. New Jersey Devils — Zayne Parekh, RHD
11. Buffalo Sabres — Cole Eiserman, LW
12. Philadelphia Flyers — Konsta Helenius, C
13. Minnesota Wild — Liam Greentree, RW
14. San Jose Sharks (from PIT) — Carter Yakemchuk, RHD
15. Detroit Red Wings — Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, RW
16. St. Louis Blues — Adam Jiricek, RHD

Why Levshunov to the Blackhawks?

I’ve mocked him to the Blackhawks at No. 2 overall previously and think he might be the strongest play for the Blackhawks outside of Celebrini. Chicago has one right-handed defenseman — Sam Rinzel — coming out of the Big Ten at some point. Adding Levshunov on the right side would give the Blackhawks two potential top-four RHD in the system, and both might be ready sooner than later. Levshunov was marvelous at Michigan State as a freshman during his pre-draft season and could be ready as soon/sooner than Rinzel. In his most recent draft prospect rankings, Corey Pronman at The Athletic compared him to Noah Dobson of the Islanders. I love that with the Blackhawks’ collection of LHD.