Edmonton Oilers Were Fortunate To Land Connor McDavid

Published on June 24th, 2024 2:26 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Heading into the 2014-15 NHL season, the NHL changed the weighting system for their draft lottery.

This change likely resulted in the Edmonton Oilers landing Connor McDavid, who changed their franchise forever.

Heading into the 2015 NHL Draft, the league a change to how the lottery was weighted.

The four worst teams received a higher weighting, while the rest of the lottery teams received a lower weighting.

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The Edmonton Oilers had the third best odds of securing the #1 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft. Here were the odds heading into the lottery:

Buffalo, 20%
Arizona, 13.5%
Edmonton, 11.15%
Toronto, 9.5%
Carolina, 8.5%
New Jersey, 7.5%
Philadephia, 6.5%
Columbus, 6.0%
San Jose, 5.0%
Colorado, 3.5%
Florida, 3.0%
Dallas, 2.5%
Los Angeles, 2.0%
Boston, 1.0%

Edmonton had won the draft lottery in 2011 and 2012 - surely they wouldn't win again in 2015? Surely the NHL would "rig" the lottery to put Connor McDavid, one of the best prospects in over a decade, on a team like Arizona or Toronto?

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Teams like the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes were obviously desperately hoping for McDavid, as he seemed a lock to become a superstar in the league.

Imagine their disappointment when the Edmonton Oilers pulled the #1 overall pick for the third time in just five years.

The Edmonton Oilers, obviously, were jubilant, while the rest of the league was left to scratch their heads.

Buffalo tried to make the best of the situation, as they were publicly very happy to land Jack Eichel. They were obviously disappointed internally, and we can see that they were right. Eichel ended up being a fine player, but McDavid is arguably one of the best players to have ever lived.