Determining Draft Order

The NHL’s annual Draft Drawing is a weighted lottery system to determine the order of selection for the first 14 picks of the 2008 Entry Draft.

The 14 teams that did not qualify for this season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, or clubs that acquired those clubs’ 2008 first-round draft picks, participated in the Drawing.

The Club selected in the drawing may not move up more than four positions in the draft order, thus only the five Clubs with the fewest regular-season points had the opportunity to receive the first overall selection. No Club can move down more than one position as a result of the Draft Drawing. For 2008, Tampa Bay won the right to the first overall pick.

Following is a listing of the results of previous Draft Drawings:

Year	Winner	Effect on Draft Order	Player Selected
1995	Los Angeles	From 7th to 3rd overall	Aki Berg
1996	Ottawa	Retained 1st overall	Chris Phillips
1997	Boston	Retained 1st overall	Joe Thornton
1998	Tampa Bay	From 3rd to 1st via two trades	Vincent Lecavalier
1999	Chicago	From 8th to 4th overall	Pavel Brendl*
2000	NY Islanders	From 5th to 1st overall	Rick DiPietro
2001	Atlanta	From 3rd to 1st overall	Ilya Kovalchuk
2002	Florida	From 3rd to 1st overall	Rick Nash**
2003	Florida	From 4th to 1st overall	Marc-Andre Fleury***
2004	Washington	From 3rd to 1st overall	Alexander Ovechkin
2005	Pittsburgh	n/a	Sidney Crosby
2006	St. Louis	Retained 1st overall	Erik Johnson
2007	Chicago	From 5th to 1st overall	Patrick Kane
2008	Tampa Bay	Retained 1st overall	-------

*	NY Rangers obtained Chicago’s pick via trade (via Vancouver and Tampa Bay). The Rangers selected RW Pavel Brendl fourth overall.
**	Columbus obtained Florida’s pick via trade. The Blue Jackets selected LW Rick Nash first overall.
***	Pittsburgh obtained Florida’s pick via trade. The Penguins selected G Marc-Andre Fleury first overall.

In the first round of the 2008 Entry Draft, the order of selection is as follows:

1. Tampa Bay will select first, followed by the remaining non-playoff teams, in inverse order of points;
2. Clubs eliminated in the first two rounds of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, regular-season division winners excluded, in inverse order of points;
3. Regular-season division winning clubs eliminated in the first two rounds of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, in inverse order of points;
4. Clubs eliminated in the 2008 Conference Finals, in inverse order of points;
5. Loser of Stanley Cup Final
6. Stanley Cup champion

In the second and subsequent rounds the order of selection is as follows:

1. Non-playoff clubs in inverse order of points;
   
2. Clubs eliminated in the first two rounds of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, regular-season division winners excluded, in inverse order of points;
3. Regular-season division winning clubs eliminated in the first two rounds of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, in inverse order of points;
4. Clubs eliminated in the 2008 Conference Finals, in inverse order of points;
5. Loser of Stanley Cup Final
6. Stanley Cup champion

2008 First Round Order of Selection

1. Tampa Bay
2. Los Angeles
3. Atlanta
4. St. Louis
5. Toronto (from NY Islanders)
6. Columbus
7. Nashville (from NY Islanders, from Toronto)
8. Phoenix
9. NY Islanders (from Nashville, from Florida)
10. Vancouver
11. Chicago
12. Buffalo (from Los Angeles, from Anaheim, from Edmonton)
13. Los Angeles (from Buffalo)
14. Carolina
15. Ottawa (from Nashville)
16. Boston
17. Anaheim (from Los Angeles, from Calgary)
18. Nashville (from Ottawa)
19. Philadelphia (from Columbus, from Colorado)
20. NY Rangers
21. Washington (from New Jersey)
22. Edmonton (from Anaheim)
23. Minnesota (from New Jersey, from Washington)
24. New Jersey (from Minnesota)
25. Calgary (from Montreal)
26. Buffalo (from San Jose)
27. Washington (from Philadelphia)
28. Phoenix (from Anaheim, from Los Angeles, from Dallas)
29. Atlanta (from Pittsburgh)
30. Detroit