Avs Win NHL Draft Lottery; Flyers to Pick at #11

For the second year in a row, the NHL team with the second worst regular season record has won the first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft.

The Colorado Avalanche will pick #1 overall when the 2013 NHL Entry Draft kicks off at the Prudential Center in Newark on June 30.

The remaining picks through #14 are as follows:

#2: Florida Panthers

#3: Tampa Bay Lightning

#4: Nashville Predators

#5: Carolina Hurricanes

#6: Calgary Flames

#7: Edmonton Oilers

#8: Buffalo Sabres

#9: New Jersey Devils:

#10: Dallas Stars

#11: Philadelphia Flyers

#12: Phoenix Coyotes

#13: Winnipeg Jets

#14: Columbus Blue Jackets

Not only is Seth Jones guaranteed to be picked first overall for the Avalanche, but it’s a great storyline too. Jones learned how to play hockey in Denver while his father, Ronald “Popeye” Jones, played for the Denver Nuggets. Per Adrian Dater, Joe Sakic (who may very well be in the running to be the next coach of the Avalanche), helped the senior Jones get his son into hockey.

Based on team needs and player types, I expect center Nathan MacKinnon to be taken by the Panthers (replacing impending free agent Stephen Weiss) while winger Jonathan Drouin will be taken by the Tampa Bay Lightning (replacing winger Cory Conacher, traded to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for goaltender Ben Bishop).

After that, who knows. Predators general manager Dave Poile said that if they didn’t move their pick, there was a “90% chance” they’d take a forward. There is a lot of talent available in the top 15 picks, so the Flyers should not have much difficulty finding a quality player.

The draft is two months away, so I’m not going to get into specific players available for the Flyers until June at the earliest.

On a separate note, the New Jersey Devils announced that they will retain their first round pick this year. The Devils were ordered to forfeit a first round pick as a consequence of their initial 17-year contract for forward Ilya Kovalchuk. This means that they will not have a draft pick when the draft moves to Philadelphia in 2014 (Editor’s note: Hah!).