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 total decide within the 2024 NHL draft lottery Tuesday night time.
“My coronary heart was beating. You’ll be able to’t actually put together for it. It is so distinctive, so particular,” mentioned Celebrini, the Boston College star who is anticipated to be the primary total decide within the NHL draft, set for The Sphere in Las Vegas in June. “It was pleasure and, actually, a bit of anxious.”
The Sharks completed final within the total standings (19-54-9) and retained their place within the lottery. San Jose had an 18.5% probability to win the lottery and a 25.5% probability to select first.
The lottery proved anticlimactic with no modifications 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 Geese at No. 3.
Sharks normal supervisor Mike Grier indicated that his crew would choose Celebrini with the primary total decide.
“I might suppose so,” he mentioned. “It wasn’t a straightforward 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 medication 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 high males’s hockey participant and will turn out to be the primary participant to win that award after which go first total within the NHL draft. He mentioned he’ll make the choice to both return to BU or play within the NHL subsequent season after the draft.
Grier mentioned the Sharks will communicate 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 mentioned he spoke with Bedard and different high prospects who had been drafted to rebuilding groups just like the Sharks. “It is a distinctive state of affairs simply going into that,” he mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s form of cool constructing one thing particular there.”
The NHL draft was held on the NHL Community studios. There have been 19 folks in a small, windowless room, together with three media observers. A video display screen displayed every crew’s odds for the primary total decide. In entrance of the display screen was a lottery machine connected to a hand-held management operated by Will Markham, a machine technician.
Balls numbering one by means of 14 had 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 can be drawn. In complete, there have been 1,001 potential combos. The groups had been allotted a variety of combos primarily based on their lottery odds.
With an NHL digicam rolling, Bettman held up his telephone to point out the lottery began at 5:38 p.m. ET. He held up that day’s copies of The Wall Avenue Journal and The New York Instances entrance pages to certify the date.
There have been two lottery attracts, one for the primary total decide and one for the second choice. The balls had 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 total 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 now we have two,” mentioned 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 very best lottery odds ended up with the highest two picks.
As Bettman left the room, NHL staff started securing crew logos to placards with the NHL protect on them. They had 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 digicam when Daly revealed the Sharks had gained it. The NHL prospect mentioned he acquired recommendation about find out how to react to the revelation of the primary total decide.
“Just a bit heads up from everybody, simply find out how to react,” Celebrini mentioned. “Clearly, it is dwell.”
A part of that recommendation was a cautionary story: That point in 2015 when presumed first total decide Connor McDavid grew to become an instantaneous meme for his surprised response to the Edmonton Oilers profitable the lottery.
“Yeah, that is what everybody introduced as much as me,” Celebrini mentioned. “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
4. Columbus Blue Jackets
5. Montreal Canadiens
6. Utah
7. Ottawa Senators
8. Seattle Kraken
9. Calgary Flames
10. New Jersey Devils
11. Buffalo Sabres
12. Philadelphia Flyers
13. Minnesota Wild
14. San Jose Sharks (from Pittsburgh)
15. Detroit Crimson Wings
16. St. Louis Blues
The NHL draft might be held at The Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29. It marks the primary time the draft might be held in Las Vegas and the primary occasion televised dwell from The Sphere.