CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MARCH 03: Jonathan Toews #19 and Patrick Kane #88 of the Chicago
Blackhawks celebrate after Alex DeBrincat #12 scored the game-winning goal against the Edmonton Oilers during overtime at
United Center on March 03, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
The National Hockey League will determine the top two picks in the 2022 NHL Draft on Tuesday via a weighted lottery. The Chicago Blackhawks are a team involved and there are a lot of implications surrounding their results.
Blackhawks fans might remember the 2007 NHL Draft Lottery. They won it and earned the right to select Patrick Kane. A young kid from the London Knights changed the fortunes of this franchise forever.
It is clear that the draft is the best way to build a team. Chicago hit on other high picks as well like Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook while finding diamonds outside of the first round like Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford.
You can also see what making bad choices like Kirby Dach and Adam Boqvist can do for you. It is very important for them to build their team the right way. They just might need to wait a little bit of time, depending on how the lottery goes.
The 2022 NHL Draft Lottery is certainly interesting for Chicago Blackhawks fans.
The Chicago Blackhawks traded their first-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the trade that they acquired Seth Jones. It is, however, lottery protected. If the Hawks win one of these two picks, they would keep it and transfer the pick to the Blue Jackets in 2023.
This is very dangerous though. Shane Wright is the lock for the first overall pick this year. He is a very good player that should step into the NHL right away. Hockey Canada granted him exceptional status which is not something they hand out freely.
The problem is that they also granted it to Connor Bedard who will be the number one pick in 2023 and he is probably better than Wright which is saying something. The draft is also much deeper as a whole. The Blackhawks are going to be very bad in 2022-23 so this matters.
You would almost rather them not with the lottery this year and give up the first-round pick. There is a good chance that they will have even better odds for a better player in 2023 if they don’t win it this year.
The worst possible outcome is that the Hawks win the second overall pick this year because they would then be missing out on both Shane Wright and Connor Bedard. To be honest, going for the tank in 2022-23 is the way to go.
The odds for the first overall pick look like this:
