Good evening, hockey fans. Tonight is the night we, slowly and tortuously, find out which team gets the most amazing defenceman to hit the draft in a very long time.

The fun gets underway at 7:30 p.m. with the announcement of picks 4-15 live on the air. This will be broadcast on NBCSN, CBC and TVAS. If you’re a viewer on Rogers Live, aka NHL Live, you’re likely not going to see this part of the action.

Later on, in the second intermission of the Sharks - Golden Knights game, which has an 8 p.m. start time, so sometime around 10 p.m. or later, the final order of the three remaining teams will be announced.

The fifteen teams in the lottery, in order of best odds of winning it to worst are:

  1. Buffalo
  2. Ottawa**
  3. Arizona
  4. Montréal
  5. Detroit
  6. Vancouver
  7. Chicago
  8. New York Rangers
  9. Edmonton
  10. New York Islanders
  11. Carolina
  12. Calgary*
  13. Dallas
  14. St. Louis**
  15. Florida

Teams marked with an asterisk have traded their 2018 first round pick. Teams marked with a double asterisk have “lottery protected” that trade. So if the pick ends up a top-10 pick the original team has the right to designate a different pick or picks as part of the trade.

If you want to catch up on the draft position choices where the Leafs are at, we have you covered. As the 12 lottery losers are announced, we’ll update this post and add a new poll for you to pick your winner.  Later on, if we’re awake still, we’ll update with the top three.

Over/under of John Tavares signing at 1:00 pm Eastern

Under29
Over43
Beyond July 3rd30
August1
September 30th7
Who cares, he’s coming here anyway64

The 2018 Draft Pick Order for Round One

15 - 4

  • Florida
  • St. Louis (Philadelphia owns it now)
  • Dallas
  • New York Islanders (was Calgary’s pick)
  • New York Islanders
  • Edmonton
  • New York Rangers
  • Chicago
  • Vancouver
  • Detroit
  • Arizona
  • Ottawa/

Who will win?

Montréal13
Carolina20
Buffalo14

The Final Three Teams in Order

Third: Montréal

Second: Carolina

First: Buffalo