The New York Rangers will have the 8th best odds to land the first overall pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, moving up one slot on the last night of the season.
It took a shootout win by the Edmonton Oilers for the New York Rangers to improve their position in the Entry Draft. The Rangers could have finished anywhere from seventh to 10th worst overall, based on Saturday’s results. Why was this important? First, the odds of moving up in the draft lottery improves the worse a team finishes. Second, the higher you pick, the “better” the player you can get. The Rangers needed everything to fall into place and for the most part, it did.
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A Rangers Loss
The one thing that was absolutely necessary was a loss to the Flyers and the Rangers did that with distinction. The 5-0 drubbing guaranteed that the Rangers would finish behind the Islanders. The Islanders’ 4-3 win over Detroit in overtime was not a factor as they were locked in to finish tenth from the bottom.
Help from the Blackhawks and Oilers
With ninth place guaranteed, the Rangers needed Chicago to get one point and Edmonton to get two points and they would finish seventh overall from the bottom. That dream vanished when the Blackhawks lost 4-1 to Winnipeg. After that game, the only question remained whether Edmonton would get the two points they needed to move ahead of New York in the standings.
It was an emotional night in Edmonton, with the Oilers fans saluting the Sedin twins throughout the game. Since the Rangers swept their season series with Edmonton, they owned the tiebreaker and the Oilers had to win the shootout. After the first three shootout rounds the teams were tied 2-2. Leon Drasaitl scored for Edmonton to lead off the the fourth round. Former Ranger Cam Talbot came through for his old team, stopping Alexander Edler and winning the game for the Oilers.
The Final Standings
Here are the bottom ten teams in the NHL for this season:
| Team | GR | Record | Points | ROW | |
| 1 | Buffalo | 0 | 25-45-12 | 62 | 24 |
| 2 | Ottawa | 0 | 28-43-11 | 67 | 26 |
| 3 | Arizona | 0 | 29-41-12 | 70 | 27 |
| 4 | Montreal | 0 | 29-40-13 | 71 | 27 |
| 5 | Detroit | 0 | 30-39-13 | 73 | 25 |
| 6 | Vancouver | 0 | 31-40-11 | 73 | 31 |
| 7 | Chicago | 0 | 33-39-10 | 76 | 32 |
| 8 | Rangers | 0 | 34-39-9 | 77 | 31 |
| 9 | Edmonton | 0 | 36-40-6 | 78 | 31 |
| 10 | Islanders | 0 | 35-37-10 | 80 | 32 |
Draft History
This will be only the second time the Rangers have had a top eight pick in the draft (in all likelihood) since the lockout of 2004-05 (Lias Andersson was picked 7th overall in 2017). It could be highest pick the team has had that they have “earned” and not acquired in a trade since Al Montoya was selected 6th overall in 2004.
Lottery Chances
The Rangers now have a six percent chance of getting the number one overall pick through the lottery. They also increased their odds incrementally of moving into the top three overall. It didn’t look good on Wednesday night. Before their loss to the Islanders, the Rangers were 10th from the bottom with a 3.5 percent chance of getting the top pick.
There is also a slim chance that the Rangers will drop to ninth, 10th or even 11th place. According to tankathon.com here are all of the odds for final draft position:
1st 6.0%
2nd 6.3%
3rd 6.7%
8th 36.8%
9th 36%
10th 7.8%
11th 0.4%
Next: What went wrong with NYR: Window closing
The lottery will be held in Toronto on April 28th. The Entry Draft will be held on June 22-23 in Dallas.