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 may’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 little bit 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 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 yr, retained the No. 2 choice, adopted by the Anaheim Geese at No. 3.
Sharks normal supervisor Mike Grier indicated that his staff would choose Celebrini with the primary total choose.
“I’d suppose so,” he stated. “It wasn’t a simple yr, 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 staff.
Celebrini, 17, was a freshman at Boston College final season. He received the Hobey Baker Award because the NCAA’s prime 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 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 prime prospects who have been drafted to rebuilding groups just like the Sharks. “It is a distinctive scenario simply going into that,” he stated. “However it’s type 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 staff’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 14 have 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 doable mixtures. The groups have been allotted quite a lot of mixtures primarily based on their lottery odds.
With an NHL digicam rolling, Bettman held up his cellphone to point out the lottery began at 5:38 p.m. ET. He held up that day’s copies of The Wall Road 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 have 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 now we 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 perfect lottery odds ended up with the highest two picks.
As Bettman left the room, NHL staff started securing staff logos to placards with the NHL protect on them. They have 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 received it. The NHL prospect stated he acquired recommendation about the way to react to the revelation of the primary total choose.
“Just a bit heads up from everybody, simply the way to react,” Celebrini stated. “Clearly, it is dwell.”
A part of that recommendation was a cautionary story: That point in 2015 when presumed first total choose Connor McDavid grew to become an instantaneous meme for his surprised response to the Edmonton Oilers successful 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 Purple Wings
16. St. Louis Blues
The NHL draft will probably be held at The Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29. It marks the primary time the draft will probably be held in Las Vegas and the primary occasion televised dwell from The Sphere.