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Greg Wyshynski, ESPNMight 7, 2024, 07:19 PM ET
- Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL author.
SECAUCUS, N.J. — Macklin Celebrini watched NHL deputy commissioner Invoice Daly slowly flip the placard to disclose that the San Jose Sharks had secured the primary general decide within the 2024 NHL draft lottery Tuesday night time.
“My coronary heart was beating. You may’t actually put together for it. It is so distinctive, so particular,” stated Celebrini, the Boston College star who is predicted to be the primary general decide within the NHL draft, set for The Sphere in Las Vegas in June. “It was pleasure and, actually, a bit anxious.”
The Sharks completed final within the general standings (19-54-9) and retained their place within the lottery. San Jose had an 18.5% likelihood to win the lottery and a 25.5% likelihood to choose first.
The lottery proved anticlimactic with no adjustments to the draft order this season. The Chicago Blackhawks, who chosen heart Connor Bedard with the No. 1 decide final 12 months, retained the No. 2 choice, adopted by the Anaheim Ducks at No. 3.
Sharks common supervisor Mike Grier indicated that his crew would choose Celebrini with the primary general decide.
“I’d suppose so,” he stated. “It wasn’t a simple 12 months, however this was an actual good prize for us.”
Celebrini, a Vancouver native, has ties to the Bay Space. He’s the son of Rick Celebrini, the Golden State Warriors director of sports activities drugs and efficiency. Macklin lived within the San Jose space and performed for the San Jose Junior Sharks 14U AAA crew.
Celebrini, 17, was a freshman at Boston College final season. He gained the Hobey Baker Award because the NCAA’s prime males’s hockey participant and will turn into the primary participant to win that award after which go first general within the NHL draft. He stated he’ll make the choice to both return to BU or play within the NHL subsequent season after the draft.
Grier stated the Sharks will converse with Celebrini and his household to see what his intentions are however that the middle has “the power to play” within the NHL instantly.
Celebrini stated he spoke with Bedard and different prime prospects who have been drafted to rebuilding groups just like the Sharks. “It is a distinctive state of affairs simply going into that,” he stated. “However it’s sort of cool constructing one thing particular there.”
The NHL draft was held on the NHL Community studios. There have been 19 individuals in a small, windowless room, together with three media observers. A video display screen displayed every crew’s odds for the primary general decide. In entrance of the display screen was a lottery machine hooked up to a hand-held management operated by Will Markham, a machine technician.
Balls numbering one via 14 have been loaded into the machine one after the other. Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed the room with a prolonged clarification of the draft lottery guidelines and defined the drawing course of: A four-number mixture that was randomly assigned to one of many 14 groups within the lottery could be drawn. In whole, there have been 1,001 potential mixtures. The groups have been allotted a variety of mixtures primarily based on their lottery odds.
With an NHL digital camera rolling, Bettman held up his cellphone to indicate the lottery began at 5:38 p.m. ET. He held up that day’s copies of The Wall Road Journal and The New York Occasions entrance pages to certify the date.
There have been two lottery attracts, one for the primary general decide and one for the second choice. The balls have been drawn each 20 seconds, with an NHL worker shouting “draw!” on the finish of every interval.
The primary quantity mixture was 10-2-7-11, so as, drawn at 5:50 p.m.
Scott Clarke of Ernst and Younger confirmed that the Sharks owned that mixture.
The drawing for the second general decide was 2-8-4-11. The winner was the Sharks, that means it needed to be redrawn. The redraw was 14-11-3-9. Once more, the winner was the Sharks.
“We have by no means had a redraw earlier than and now we now have two,” stated Bettman, glancing at Markham. “I hope your finger is not getting drained.”
The fourth drawing was 6-11-3-14. Clarke confirmed that mixture belonged to the Blackhawks, that means the 2 groups with the most effective lottery odds ended up with the highest two picks.
As Bettman left the room, NHL workers started securing crew logos to placards with the NHL protect on them. They have been transported to the TV studio to be revealed dwell on the air by Daly.
Celebrini took half within the dwell TV broadcast of the draft and was on digital camera when Daly revealed the Sharks had gained it. The NHL prospect stated he acquired recommendation about how one can react to the revelation of the primary general decide.
“Just a bit heads up from everybody, simply how one can react,” Celebrini stated. “Clearly, it is dwell.”
A part of that recommendation was a cautionary story: That point in 2015 when presumed first general decide Connor McDavid grew to become an instantaneous meme for his shocked response to the Edmonton Oilers profitable the lottery.
“Yeah, that is what everybody introduced as much as me,” Celebrini stated. “He had a singular expertise.”
The order of choice for the primary 16 picks of the primary spherical:
1. San Jose Sharks
2. Chicago Blackhawks
3. Anaheim Geese
6. Utah
11. Buffalo Sabres
13. Minnesota Wild
14. San Jose Sharks (from Pittsburgh)
16. St. Louis Blues
The NHL draft can be held at The Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29. It marks the primary time the draft can be held in Las Vegas and the primary occasion televised dwell from The Sphere.
