The live 2025 NHL Draft Lottery was an absolutely confusing disaster
The 2025 NHL Draft Lottery flopped like a dead catfish on the Nashville ice on Monday night, as a previously typical lottery process turned into 30 minutes of bad Game Show Network reject nonsense.
As ping pong balls fluttered about in an air machine, NHL fans across the globe looked on in utter confusion as the fate of their team's draft status depended on an unnecessarily complicated process.
.
Apparently, the sequence of balls drawn somehow sent the New York Islanders to the top of the NHL Draft and the Utah Hockey Club to the fourth pick. We're sure fans of those teams are thrilled, but the rest of the world had to watch this bewildering hodgepodge of airballs decide the order of the 2025 NHL Draft.
Like... what is this?!?!
New York Islanders have won the 2025 NHL Draft lottery. They had the 10th-best odds of winning at 3.5%. pic.twitter.com/TKWrg2XLgA
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) May 5, 2025
Look, if this is really how top draft picks are decided, this just makes the process look all that much worse. Draft lotteries are inherently evil, but this process just made it all the more confounding. Plus, it was just bad television.
2025 NHL Draft: 5 top prospects in this year's class, including Matthew Schaefer.
It was just too hard to understand how the live draft lottery worked in the moment, zapping any of the intrigue out of the process. You were left scrambling to figure out what each result meant, and the Islanders winning the first pick just made the whole ordeal that much more bizarre.
The NFL does a lot wrong, but its draft process is at least simple to understand and doesn't rely on floating ping pong balls pumping out the serial number from the Lost hatch. What are we doing?
Lots of fans really didn't like this, and it's hard to blame them. This was a confusing disaster for ESPN and the NHL, and it's really hard to see this coming back next year.
This is the New Coke of draft lottery television; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman needs to make an executive decision to rework this for the future... or just get rid of the lottery system, for goodness' sake.
That NHL Draft lottery was one of the most confusing things I've seen pic.twitter.com/ifUVOFMsDG
— Cameron Peters (@CamDawg1988) May 5, 2025
'Gary, the fans think the draft is rigged. They'd like more transparency.'Gary: 'Ok. How about the most convoluted draft lottery ever, but we do it live.''Uhhhhhh….' #NHLDraftLottery
— Ryan Turner (@rturner17) May 5, 2025
The #NHLDraftLottery is the perfect example of how bad the @NHL is at marketing and content. Convoluted system. Cutting to a commercial mid draw. Team branding removed from the balls so they can't go viral after. Just incredibly bad all around.
— Fentoozler (@forevermusing) May 5, 2025
We don't get it 🤷♂️
— Michigan Hockey (@umichhockey) May 5, 2025
What the hell is this NHL draft lottery??Anyone else just totally lost? pic.twitter.com/XofmsR3LLI
— Jacob Pacheco (@JacobPacheco6) May 5, 2025
Trying to understand the NHL Draft lottery pic.twitter.com/wcnhVUUZZ1
— Odds Shark (@OddsShark) May 5, 2025
me tryna figure out how this nhl draft lottery works pic.twitter.com/5yCHBRvcRI
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) May 5, 2025
The NHL Draft lottery is literally the most confusing thing in the world
— jacob (@jacobnyr) May 5, 2025
Everyone watching this NHL Draft Lottery right now and trying to figure it out pic.twitter.com/9opvhFiGV8
— Dan Colucci (@coluccid2) May 5, 2025
Trying to figure out this NHL Draft Lottery: pic.twitter.com/L1ptPw64Ma
— theScore Bet (@theScoreBet) May 5, 2025
THIS MAKES NO SENSE!!Weirdest draft lottery in all of professional sports.Leave it up to the NHL to confuse its fan base even more. #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/QEwCEB9kDv
— Jacob Pacheco (@JacobPacheco6) May 5, 2025
The NHL Draft lottery should have stayed behind closed doors. This is awful television.
— Sam Ali (@SamAliSports) May 5, 2025
Me: trying to understand this NHL lottery format... pic.twitter.com/h4OA5190ya
— SHAAAAAAAAAARKS (@shaaaaaaaaaarks) May 5, 2025
Trying to figure out how the NHL draft lottery works pic.twitter.com/EqFuy1aung
— 105.9 The X (@1059thex) May 5, 2025
Turned on the NHL draft lottery and have no idea what's going on. pic.twitter.com/gX9DacTMB7
— OBVIOUS SHIRTS® (@obvious_shirts) May 5, 2025
The NHL Draft Lottery: pic.twitter.com/UZbbOnfZs5
— Jake (@313Hockey) May 5, 2025
This is the WORST draft lottery format I have ever seen. I have watched & watched and have not learned a single flipping thing on how it works. @NHL what the damn hell is this 😭
— 𝕃𝔼𝔸𝔽𝕊 𝔽𝕆ℝ𝔼𝕍𝔼ℝ (@BlueBuds34) May 5, 2025
I'm not sure I've ever watched a dumber, more convoluted, over-dramatized production than the 10 minutes of the NHL draft lottery I just saw.But hey, the @NYIslanders won the top pick, so … pic.twitter.com/tJmseZgcw6
— Ralph Vacchiano (@RalphVacchiano) May 5, 2025
NHL draft lottery is the dumbest, most complicated way to decide a draft order I've ever seen.
— Rob Gallik (@CoachGallik) May 5, 2025
Me watching this NHL draft lottery: pic.twitter.com/85uoF2xoAk
— Joseph Zita (@josephdzita) May 5, 2025
Me watching the #NHLDraftLottery pic.twitter.com/o4AiqQzcIT
— courtney⸆⸉ (@nyrswift) May 5, 2025
Me trying to understand the rules for the #NHLDraftLottery https://t.co/6BFQBSRYq9
— MT-Yes (@emptyess512) May 5, 2025
This is painstakingly bad television. Do we really need to see 14 ping pong balls being dropped into the machine? #Isles #NHLDraftLottery
— Gil Martin (@IceWarsNYRvsNYI) May 5, 2025
The NHL Draft Lottery is absurd. Get rid of it. #NHLDraft
— Arthur J. Regner (@ArthurJRegner) May 5, 2025
They even lost a guy who loves math. A literal math nerd!
As a math nerd, the #NHLDraftLottery was cool until they cut away from the last ball. Now I'm just skeptical of it all over again
— Nick Gratton (@thenickgratton) May 5, 2025
Please, for the love of all that is good in hockey, just go back to the big cards next year. This .
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The live 2025 NHL Draft Lottery was an absolutely confusing disaster
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USA Today
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New York Times
35 minutes ago
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And then it becomes much harder to show up at the rink the next day or the next season in Laval. These are things we need to be mindful of in how we do things.' Advertisement Vincent is a big part of that process running smoothly, of making sure that belief is still there for his young players, that the path remains clear and realistic, that it's not hard to show up at the rink in Laval. But Vincent also understands how difficult that can be. He worked for a long time in the Winnipeg Jets organization as an NHL assistant and the head coach of the Moose, and Vincent helped several members of the current Jets core during his time in the AHL. They had a draft-and-develop philosophy in Winnipeg, and it took several years to come to fruition. Vincent also mentioned the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had a young core in the AHL that won a championship at that level and moved up to the NHL together to complement the young core already in place, a model that is probably most similar to what the Canadiens are trying to do in Laval, but a model that is also a bit of an outlier because it is exceedingly rare to see a team as young as the 2012 Norfolk Admirals or the 2025 Laval Rocket win a Calder Cup. 'I don't know if there's a magic formula,' Vincent concluded. Maybe not, but the Canadiens need to find a formula, magic or not, that translates the young talent in Laval to talent in Montreal, whether that's through players graduating to the NHL or simply gaining enough value to make them valuable trade commodities. Despite being swept in the playoffs, the Laval Rocket season was an unmitigated success because the Canadiens see players they can realistically incorporate on the NHL roster soon, and because they have other players who could entice other teams. And Vincent was central to that success. When the Rocket season began, Vincent wasn't sure they would be keeping Florian Xhekaj. He was eligible to play an overage season in junior, they could have sent him to the ECHL, there were options. But Xhekaj stayed in Laval and wound up scoring 24 goals as a rookie, two behind the team lead and tied with Jared Davidson for the seventh-most in franchise history. Advertisement At the beginning of the season, just after Luke Tuch had his first career fight, Vincent talked about him as a player who could translate that rare blend of skill and toughness into an NHL role one day. 'That's the type of player you like to have in the playoffs, and I think he's a player we can develop,' Vincent said on Oct. 16. 'I think he really has a chance to have an impact with the organization, both here and maybe eventually with the Canadiens. When you talk about having a unique chair and a role that's different from the others, I think he's establishing himself very quickly as a unique player. 'He brings something not a lot of players bring.' When told he has two such players on his team, Vincent asked if we were referring to Xhekaj. 'Xhekaj is a little bit younger, though, so we still have to develop him in that regard,' Vincent said then. 'But yes, we should have two of them.' Fast forward to Thursday, and Vincent saw Xhekaj in a different light. In a nutshell, this difference is what Laval is all about, and what Vincent's job is all about. 'He scored a lot of goals, his shot is amazing, he's got a quick release, accurate too,' Vincent said Thursday. 'But I didn't know about his brain, and to me, that's the thing that intrigues me the most. How they manage expectations, how can they apply info that we give them and then do it right away on the ice, or how long does it take for you to gather the info and execute on the ice at a very high speed. 'For me, to see Flo gathering that information and teachings, and then do it on the ice and execute at the speed he did in his first year, with his last name — because the other team on the other side, they know — this kid has this confidence. He's walking the line. He's not cocky, but he's confident that he can be the man, and he's still physically not there yet. So, I was quite impressed with him.' Advertisement Xhekaj, in the span of seven or eight months, has gone from a player the Canadiens hoped would be a part of their NHL future to one they expect to be a part of their NHL future. There may be no magic formula, but this comes pretty close. On another part of the spectrum is Owen Beck, whom the Canadiens have always seen as a part of their future success. He was drafted as a two-way centre, the type of player a team wins with, cerebral, competitive, responsible. With Laurent Dauphin filling the role of top-line centre, with the emergence of Xhekaj in the middle, and with the last arrivals of Brandon Gignac from injury and Oliver Kapanen from the NHL, Beck finished the season as a winger. This could be seen as a step back, but only if you don't have the perspective of Vincent on the path to the NHL that these young players need to see. Vincent said Beck moving to the wing was circumstantial, but there was more to it than that. 'For Owen, we know he can play centre, but we're going to continue giving him minutes and reps on the wing,' Vincent said. 'Because it's also about knowing who's your competition to make the Montreal Canadiens? So he can compete not only against the centres, but also the wingers. 'I was impressed with him as a winger.' Understanding what his players need to graduate to the next level is definitely part of the formula. Another part of the formula, magic or not, is preparing and nurturing a player such as David Reinbacher, a no-doubt NHL player. Reinbacher's season was nearly ruined by a serious knee injury in training camp, but he made the most of what looked to be a lost season. While he recovered from his injury, he spent a lot of time in meetings with the Canadiens coaching staff, observing what they look for on video, learning about the tiny margins that exist in the NHL, how every little action can be consequential. One thing Reinbacher says he learned was about stick positioning, and even hands positioning, making sure you're cutting off the right passing lanes and understanding the spatial aspects of defending. Advertisement 'Just getting into how detailed this league really is,' he said. Once he arrived with the Rocket, still recovering from his injury and dealing with periodic swelling in his knee, Vincent witnessed firsthand why he was a No. 5 overall draft pick. 'I don't know how to answer that question,' Vincent said when asked how close Reinbacher is to making the jump to the NHL. 'What I know is he's a young man with a great mindset and a great computer that reads the game really well. His hockey sense is really good. His feet, the mechanics of his feet, the way he skates, is really good. Agility for a big guy like him still getting used to his body, really good. Coachable, great teammate. A little bit more grit than I expected on the ice facing a team that forechecks hard. I didn't see him refuse hits to make plays, that's a big indicator for me, for defencemen anyway. So, a lot of good things. 'Now, for him, physically, he's still a very young man. He needs to grow into a bigger person and a stronger, faster body so we can see how good his brain is once he's strong physically.' There's the brain again. It is something the Canadiens value in players, and having a coach in the AHL who values it as much as Vincent does creates continuity within the organization. The other side of this coin is building value in players who may not have a future in Montreal but could still contribute to the team-building process. It is a fluid list, but the reality is there are a limited number of spots in Montreal, and the players that graduate to fill those spots need to fit the specific role that's available. The Rocket has far more players with NHL potential than the Canadiens have spots on the NHL roster. William Trudeau, for instance, is 22 and has made great strides in Laval, but it's hard to see how he could carve out space among the crowded group of young defencemen the Canadiens are cultivating both in Montreal and Laval. Advertisement 'I think there's a chair for William Trudeau,' Vincent said. Surely there is, somewhere. There is a long list of players like Trudeau, who could have an NHL chair but not necessarily in Montreal. Vincent's competitive environment in Laval helps build value for those players. Someone like Sean Farrell, for instance, who played on his top line and had the production to justify it over the second half of the season, but is an undersized forward trying to crack a top-six in Montreal that has already filled its quota of undersized forwards. Or someone like Adam Engström, who looked tremendous over the second half and in the playoffs but, as a left-shot defenceman, has major roadblocks in Montreal in the form of Kaiden Guhle and Lane Hutson, through no fault of his own. Logan Mailloux faces a similar logjam in front of him on the right side of the defence with Reinbacher seemingly ahead of him and a reluctance to overload the blue line with youth in Montreal. Then there's someone such as Joshua Roy. He is 21 and scored 20 goals in 47 regular-season games in Laval, an appealing profile for any team looking for offence. But he entered training camp with a real chance to stick with the Canadiens and didn't seize the opportunity, and a late-season call-up to Montreal wasn't any more convincing. When Vincent was asked a very open-ended question about who improved the most in getting them closer to Montreal, he listed nine players, even mentioning Filip Mešár, who only played the final playoff game and was a healthy scratch for the rest of them. When he was done, Vincent noted he might have forgotten some players. He did. He forgot Roy. 'We talk about pace with Josh,' Vincent said later when asked about Roy. 'It's known.' Players like this are almost as important to the Canadiens' build as the players who have futures in Montreal, because it's difficult to fill every hole in a future lineup simply through the draft, where you are looking for talent above and beyond anything else. Either that talent benefits you directly, or it benefits you indirectly in the form of trades that help fill holes that arise during the process. And the Canadiens are at that point in their process. When Hughes arrived as general manager of the Canadiens, he spoke of wanting to integrate multiple aspects of the organization and eliminate the silos that might isolate them. The coaching staff should be able to work with management, the development staff, the analytics group and, ultimately, the AHL coaching staff so there is a cohesive vision of what the organization wants to become and everyone is working on the same page to achieve that. Advertisement After one year of Vincent in Laval, it seems clear he is holding up his end of the bargain. And the fact that he appears to be sticking around, and is happy to do so, is a good way for the Canadiens to start what looks to be a pivotal offseason.
