The New York Islanders own the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft after winning the 2025 Draft Lottery on Monday night.
Entering Monday night’s drawing, the Islanders had just a 3.5% chance (the 10th-best odds) of landing the top pick but now, barring a trade, they will select at the top of the draft for the fifth time in franchise history.
If the Islanders indeed pick at No. 1, only the Montreal Canadiens (6) will have drafted first overall more times in NHL history. The last time the Islanders had the first pick was in 2009 when they selected forward John Tavares.
After the Islanders, the San Jose Sharks landed the second pick while the Chicago Blackhawks will pick third. The Sharks own a top-five pick for the third straight season after selecting Macklin Celebrini with the top pick in 2024 and Will Smith with the No. 4 pick in 2023.
The Utah Hockey Club, who had a 94.8% chance of landing the No. 14 pick, jumped all the way up to No. 4.
The 2025 NHL Draft will take place on June 27 and 28 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Here is the Draft’s updated order following Monday’s lottery:
- New York Islanders
- San Jose Sharks
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Utah Hockey Club
- Nashville Predators
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Boston Bruins
- Seattle Kraken
- Buffalo Sabres
- Anaheim Ducks
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- New York Rangers
- Detroit Red Wings
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Vancouver Canucks
- Montreal Canadiens
Islanders have chance to select Matthew Schaefer
With the Islanders now owning the top pick, they’ll likely have the opportunity to select Ontario Hockey League defenseman Matthew Schaefer, who plays for the Erie Otters. Schaefer averaged 1.29 points per contest this past season, which is the third most points per game by an OHL defenseman.
If Schaefer is selected with the No. 1 pick, he’d be the first OHL player to have that honor since the Edmonton Oilers picked Connor McDavid with the top pick in 2015. He’d also be just the fifth defenseman to be selected No. 1 in this century, joining Owen Power (Sabres, 2021), Rasmus Dahlin (Sabres, 2018), Aaron Ekblad (Panthers, 2014), and Erik Johnson (Blues, 2006).
Saginaw Spirit (OHL) center Michael Misa also will likely be selected with one of the top picks. Misa is ranked as the top forward by many scouting services after leading the Canadian Hockey League (OHL, WHL, & QMJHL) with 134 points (62 goals, 72 assists) this season.
How does the NHL Draft Lottery work?
For the first time in NHL history, the league conducted the draft lottery live as fans learned the teams’ fates at the same time as the 2025 Draft Lottery participants. The lottery was held at the NHL Network’s studio in Secaucus, New Jersey.
The lottery determined the selection order for the first 16 picks of Round 1 of the draft. The lottery was conducted in two phases with the first determining the first overall pick. The second phase determined the second overall pick.
In each phase, 14 balls (numbered 1-16) were placed into a lottery machine with four being drawn. The four-digit series was matched against a look-up table that contains 1,000 possible combinations to pick which teams would be assigned the winning combination. As each ball was drawn, the odds changed and teams were eliminated.
There was a limit of the total number of selections (10) that a team in the 2025 Draft Lottery could move up if they won one of the lottery draws. The 14 teams that weren’t selected in the 2025 Draft Lottery were awarded the remaining draft spots in inverse order of their regular-season point totals.