Blue Jackets Get Another Chance to Win Bad Lottery Luck – Hockey Writers –

Will 2024 finally be the year of the Columbus Blue Jackets and success in the NHL Draft Lottery? On Tuesday, we will officially find out where the team will pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

To say the Blue Jackets have had bad luck in the Draft Lottery would be a gross understatement. Never once in their history have they won the first pick. The only time the Blue Jackets ever took the No. 1 pick was when they traded up in 2002 for that pick. They chose Rick Nash.

In fact, the blue jackets have only ever moved up in the draft order due to the lottery pick once. That happened in 2016 when three different competitions were drawn. The Blue Jackets won the third tie which saw them take third place. They took Pierre-Luc Dubois.

We will prepare what you can expect on Tuesday night. Despite the bad results of the past, those past games have no bearing on what will happen now. For those of you who are new here, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane with how the Draft Lottery came out of the Blue Jackets’ vision at different points.

A Quick History Lesson

2023: The Blue Jackets hold the second-best odds to win the first overall pick. They did not win a single game with two draws and dropped from second to third. They were able to draft Adam Fantilli.

2022: The Blue Jackets failed to win for the first time due to being able to jump 10 spots. They had the 12th best chance to make that jump. They didn’t. They were able to draft Denton Mateychuk in the 12th spot. This was the same year they held the sixth pick for the Blackhawks. That pick was David Jiricek.

2021: The Blue Jackets hold the fifth-best prospect. They didn’t win a draw. The Canadiens won the lottery and selected Juraj Slafkovsky. The Seattle Kraken won the second draw and took Matty Beniers. The Blue Jackets took Kent Johnson in the fifth spot.

2016: As mentioned, the Blue Jackets won the third round. They had a fourth chance at the lead when the first baseman entered. This means that the Blue Jackets have never won the first draw, they have never tied the second.

2015: The Edmonton Oilers moved from third to first and drafted Connor McDavid. The Blue Jackets continued their run at the end of last season which led them to rise to the top. However, that reduced their lottery chances. They were able to draft Zach Werenski.

2012: The Blue Jackets had the best chance to win the lottery only to see the Oilers blow it. After the Oilers took Nail Yakopov, the Blue Jackets took Ryan Murray.

Tuesday night setup

The Blue Jackets have the fourth best chance of getting the top pick in the 2024 NHL Draft at 9.5%. This means they can choose anywhere from first to sixth. They have a 9.5% chance of first or second. The third is unlikely to be less than 1%. There is a unique situation in the playoffs where the Blue Jackets can move up one spot from fourth to third.

The probability of the Blue Jackets finishing in fourth place is 15.4%. They have a 44.6% chance of dropping to fifth and a 20.8% chance of dropping to sixth. That will mean that the two teams under them have won a tie if they are in sixth place.

Another way to think about this is that the Blue Jackets have the same chance to win a tie as they fall in two spots. The most likely outcome is that they fall from one to five places.

You May Love It Again

How does the Draft Lottery work? Each team will be assigned a unique four-digit combination consisting of the numbers 1-14. In each combination, there are no repeating digits. The way the numbers are drawn also doesn’t matter. This means that there are about 1,001 four-digit combinations that can be drawn. One combination is considered a redraw. Another 1,000 are randomly distributed to qualifying teams according to their winning percentage.

Commissioner Gary Bettman will preside over the draw behind closed doors a few hours before the televised event. There will be media witnesses who will be watching the game as it happens. A third party company will determine which team has that combination drawn at each of the two points. The first draw is for the first choice and the second draw is for the second choice.

The Blue Jackets, like everyone else, will learn the results of the Draft Lottery program that will be broadcast by ESPN on Tuesday night.

The Importance of Winning the Lottery

For the Blue Jackets, they need something to keep them going. The last few seasons have not been disastrous for a number of reasons. Coaches and managers were shown the door. Hockey was very difficult to watch at times. For once, this team needs to jump on the luck to get top talent.

This season, the consensus top pick is Macklin Celebrini. He became the youngest player ever to win the Hobey Baker Award as a freshman at Boston University. He will also play in the upcoming World Championships for Team Canada alongside Fantilli and Connor Bedard.

What does it mean to win the lottery? It would mean a big, much-needed step in the right direction for a team that has been looking for anything to build on. It would finally stop the demons of the previous lottery while adding a core element to the middle of the ice. Suddenly, the Fantilli, Celebrini, Cole Sillinger trio in the middle looks pretty good.

Winning the lottery could help the Blue Jackets get back into playoff contention soon. They will have a solid foundation to build on for years to come.

Even if they don’t win

There is still a bright side to not winning the lottery or dropping a spot or two if it happens. The Blue Jackets can’t pick worse than sixth. Why is that important? This is because whoever holds the pick in the top 15 will get an impact player.

Get used to hearing names like Ivan Demidov, Artyom Levshunov, Cole Eiserman, Cayden Lindstrom, Sam Dickinson, Zayne Parekh, Zeev Buium and Berkly Catton. With eight names listed here not counting Celebrini, the Blue Jackets will likely get one of these top talents.

The Blue Jackets will make the most of the top pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. They hope that this is finally their year to win the lottery and jump to the top. As John Davidson said on Saturday, “We’ll be praying” for a positive outcome. Will the lottery balls finally jump the Blue Jackets’ way? We’ll find out Tuesday night.