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 choose within the 2024 NHL draft lottery Tuesday evening.
“My coronary heart was beating. You’ll be able to’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 total choose 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% 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 choose final 12 months, retained the No. 2 choice, adopted by the Anaheim Geese at No. 3.
Sharks common supervisor Mike Grier indicated that his group would choose Celebrini with the primary total choose.
“I might suppose so,” he stated. “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 drugs and efficiency. Macklin lived within the San Jose space and performed for the San Jose Junior Sharks 14U AAA group.
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 grow to be the primary participant to win that award after which go first total 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 flexibility to play” within the NHL instantly.
Celebrini stated he spoke with Bedard and different high prospects who had been drafted to rebuilding groups just like the Sharks. “It is a distinctive scenario simply going into that,” he stated. “But it surely’s form 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 group’s odds for the primary total choose. 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 by way of 14 had been loaded into the machine one after the other. Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed the room with a prolonged rationalization 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 attainable combos. The groups had been allotted various combos primarily based on their lottery odds.
With an NHL digital camera 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 choose 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 choose was 2-8-4-11. The winner was the Sharks, which 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, which means the 2 groups with the most effective lottery odds ended up with the highest two picks.
As Bettman left the room, NHL staff started securing group logos to placards with the NHL defend on them. They had been transported to the TV studio to be revealed stay on the air by Daly.
Celebrini took half within the stay TV broadcast of the draft and was on digital camera when Daly revealed the Sharks had gained it. The NHL prospect stated he obtained recommendation about easy methods to react to the revelation of the primary total choose.
“Just a bit heads up from everybody, simply easy methods to react,” Celebrini stated. “Clearly, it is stay.”
A part of that recommendation was a cautionary story: That point in 2015 when presumed first total choose Connor McDavid turned an on the spot meme for his surprised 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
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 will likely be held at The Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29. It marks the primary time the draft will likely be held in Las Vegas and the primary occasion televised stay from The Sphere.