The Blackhawks could be part of the NHL draft lottery for a third straight year.
The Blackhawks are one of 16 teams that will be featured in the “qualifying round,” which was part of the league’s 24-team return-to-play format. Chicago will be the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference and face the No. 5 seed Oilers in a best-of-five series.
The loser of the series will join the other eliminated teams and the seven non-playoff teams in the draft lottery.
The winner of each play-in series will advance to play a series against one of the top seeds from their respective conference.
Chicago moved back one spot to No. 8 in the 2018 draft lottery and took defenseman Adam Boqvist. In 2019, the Blackhawks moved up nine spots to No. 3 to select center Kirby Dach. Both Boqvist and Dach played more than 40 NHL games as rookies this season.
The draft lottery will be June 26, which was scheduled to be the first day of the NHL draft in Montreal before it was postponed March 25 due to the coronavirus.
The first phase of the draft lottery will consist of three drawings and include the seven teams that did not qualify for the playoffs and eight placeholder positions. Lottery odds for the seven non-playoff teams were determined by their point percentage for the 2019-20 season, which was paused March 12.
If each of the three Phase 1 drawings is won by a bottom-seven team, Phase 2 will not be required. The remaining four teams from the bottom seven will be assigned picks No. 4-7 in inverse order of regular-season point percentage. Picks No. 8-15 will be assigned to teams eliminated from the qualifying round, also in inverse order of regular-season point percentage.
If a qualifying round losing team wins each of the top three picks, the bottom seven teams will be assigned picks No. 4-10 in inverse order of their point percentage.
If a qualifying round losing team wins one or two of the top three picks, any bottom-seven team not in the top three will be assigned their pick in inverse order of point percentage.
Odds for first lottery drawing (bottom-seven teams’ point percentage in parentheses):
Red Wings — (.275) 18.5 percent chance for No. 1 pick
Senators — (.437) 13.5 percent
Senators (from Sharks, .450) — 11.5 percent
Kings — (.457) 9.5 percent
Ducks — (.472) 8.5 percent
Devils — (.493) 7.5 percent
Sabres — (.493) 6.5 percent
Qualifying Round Team A — 6.0 percent
Qualifying Round Team B — 5.0 percent
Qualifying Round Team C — 3.5 percent
Qualifying Round Team D — 3.0 percent
Qualifying Round Team E — 2.5 percent
Qualifying Round Team F — 2.0 percent
Qualifying Round Team G — 1.5 percent
Qualifying Round Team H — 1.0 percent
Play-in series
West
No. 5 Oilers vs. No. 12 Blackhawks
No. 6 Predators vs. No. 11 Coyotes
No. 7 Canucks vs. No. 10 Wild
No. 8 Flames vs. No. 9 Jets
East
No. 5 Penguins vs. No. 12 Canadiens
No. 6 Hurricanes vs. No. 11 Rangers
No. 7 Islanders vs. No. 10 Panthers
No. 8 Maple Leafs vs. No. 9 Blue Jackets