Now that the 2019 NHL draft lottery has given us the final draft order for the 15 non-playoff teams, here’s our first 2019 NHL mock draft, which will look at the lottery picks.
It’s officially 2019 NHL mock draft season. On Tuesday, April 9, the 2019 NHL Draft Lottery took place. Ping pong balls were inserted into a machine behind closed doors, and fans and execs of the
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14 non-playoff teams and the Colorado Avalanche (sorry, Ottawa) waited patiently to find out the results.
While New Jersey Devils fans were rubbing their lucky Taylor Hall bobbleheads and the rest of the country was patiently watching a brief playoff preview on NBCSN (or Sportsnet, for you Canadian readers), the lottery was drawn. Here’s a video of how the lottery was actually done
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As Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly revealed the cards one at a time, tension began to build. The first surprise came with Minnesota dropping a spot to number 12, revealing a move up for the Chicago Blackhawks. Next, the New York Rangers moved up, which wasn’t so far out of the realm of possibility. Then, the internet started blowing up Taylor Hall’s Twitter page as New Jersey had yet again won a top three pick.
The winners were arranged in the order of Devils, Rangers, Blackhawks at the first three picks, respectively. Jack Hughes was in attendance to watch the lottery and begin imagining himself playing for any of the 15 teams involved. Turns out, he’s ending up on one side of the ever-percolating Hudson River Rivalry.
Here, we are going to conduct a mock draft, as we see fit. This is just one view of how things will unfold in Vancouver this coming June and may change completely for some unforeseen reasons. Trades can and will occur to change how even the top 15 picks look. We are going to take that into account, but throw it in as a side point rather than focusing on who that team would take if they choose to hold onto that pick.
Also, we will only take the top 15 into consideration. The rest of the draft order will be decided over the course of the playoffs. So here we go. With the first overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft, the New Jersey Devils select…