Lottery tomorrow night

Tuesday night will see the non-playoff pick position for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft determined via the league's weighted system in which the five bottom-finishing teams all have a chance at gaining the first overall pick.

The event will be broadcast live in the U.S. on VERSUS (via simulcast) at 8 pm EST, while our Canadaian brothers and sisters can see it on TSN. NESN will have a 30-minute special immediately after, featuring Boston Bruins Vice President Cam Neely in studio with host Kathryn Tappen.

Here's the money quote from a Boston Bruins press release today:

"The Bruins - who acquired Toronto’s first and second roundpicks this year in the trade for Phil Kessel - have an 18.8% chance oflanding the first overall pick and a 60.8% chance of landing either the first or second overall pick. Based on the Lottery’s rules, the lowestpick the Bruins can have is the third overall selection."

We've waited all season to see where Boston's pick will end up, so the team can now only hope that any of the bad luck/karma/vibes whatever you call them-- you know, the stuff that saw the Boston Celtics drop all the way down to five in 2007 after finishing with the NBA's second-worst record in the 06-07 season-- doesn't resurface.

Of course, the NHL lottery system isn't quite the joke that the NBA one is, but still. Here are the different teams with percentages based on the end of the regular season yesterday.

(Also from the release:)
Per NHL rules, the Club selected in the Draft Drawing may not move upmore than four positions in the draft order. Thus, the only Clubs withthe opportunity to receive the first overall selection are the fiveteams with the lowest regular-season point totals, or the Clubs thatacquired an eligible Club’s first-round draft pick. No club will movedown more than one position as a result of the Draft Drawing.

The percentage chance of a team being selected in the DraftDrawing:

Edmonton 25.0%
Boston (from TOR) 18.8%
Florida 14.2%
Columbus 10.7%
NY Islanders 8.1%
Tampa Bay 6.2%
Carolina 4.7%
Atlanta 3.6%
Minnesota 2.7%
NY Rangers 2.1%
Dallas 1.5%
Anaheim 1.1%
Phoenix (from CGY) 0.8%
St. Louis 0.5%

And no, haven't forgotten about the Central rankings...will get to that in the next day. Got overcome by the Bruins-Capitals game stories yesterday and then my deadline for the New England Hockey Journal May issue (Connor Brickley feature).