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. 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
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/gX9D9acTMB7 — OBVIOUS SHIRTS® (@obvious_shirts) 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 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 stunk. This article originally appeared on For The Win: The live 2025 NHL Draft Lottery was an absolutely confusing disaster.
The New York Islanders have won the 2025 NHL Draft lottery and with it the chance to select one of the CHL’s top prospects. The Islanders climbed from the no. 10 spot to now own the first overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. New York began the draft lottery with a 3.5 per cent chance of landing the no. 1 selection. Erie’s Matthew Schaefer topped NHL Central Scouting’s Final Rankings last month and with good reason. While injuries limited Schaefer to just 17 games this year, he dazzled when he was on the ice. He racked up 22 points (seven goals) and a +21 rating with the Otters but his ability to be a difference-maker every single night makes him the best defencemen available.
“What does remain is that [Schaefer] is the best at his position,” said NHL Central Scouting vice president and director Dan Marr said. “The potential and upside that everybody sees in [Schaefer’s] game … he just scratched the surface this season. Our guys, everyone, expect him to be a dominant player at the OHL level next year, every game, and those type of guys are hard to come by.”
In addition to the NHL, TSN, Elite Prospects, The Athletic, Daily Faceoff and Sportsnet, among others, have Schaefer as the top prospect in 2025. The 17-year-old has also wowed at the international level too as he has claimed gold at the 2023 Hockey U17 World Challenge, 2024 U18 World Championships and 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He also represented Canada at the 2025 World Juniors but hasn’t played since he suffered a broken clavicle in Canada’s second game of the tournament.
If selected first overall, Schaefer would be the first player since fellow Erie star Connor McDavid to be chosen with the no. 1 pick in both the OHL and NHL (2015). But the Islanders will have other options too. Saginaw’s Michael Misa – one of just nine players to be granted exceptional status in CHL history – led the league in scoring in 2024-25 with 134 points while he also found the back of the net 62 times. A year ago, Misa helped lead Saginaw to its first Memorial Cup title in team history and then a few months later claimed gold with Canada at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Misa was ranked second in NHL Central Scouting’s final list.
“Every time I saw Misa, I was very impressed with that complete game,” Central Scouting associate director David Gregory said. “I was so impressed with how responsible a centre he was on his side of the red line.” Furthermore, Brantford’s Jake O’Brien (no. 4), Seattle’s Radim Mrtka (no. 5) and Brampton’s Porter Martone (no. 6) round out the top five listed CHL players in NHL Central Scouting’s Final Rankings. In all, 170 CHL players were listed.
“He placed himself in a special category,” Marr said of O’Brien. “In his first year in the OHL [2023-24], everyone started to appreciate him. He’s got some elite-level hockey sense and skill and I think that the ceiling on him is just a little higher with the expectations.”
“He could go in the top three and it’s not going to shock anybody,” Marr said of Mrtka. “He’s a pretty complete package, everything that you’re looking for in a player, and he’s been able to deliver while having changed continents and leagues. I think he’s going to continue to elevate his game. So with him, everyone’s looking at him like the best is yet to come.” Finally, on Martone, Marr said: “Porter brings that package that teams are looking for; he has a little bit more of the size asset element to his game than some of the other skaters in the top five do. I think that’s appealing to some teams, but I also think he’s eliminated any concerns there was about the skating. He’s undervalued on his skill set. He’s the one who wears his compete on his sleeve and I think that’s what endears him to everybody.”
San Jose, Chicago, Utah and Nashville round out the Top 5. The last time the Islanders held the no. 1 pick they selected Oshawa and London alumni John Tavares in 2009.
The New York Islanders won the NHL Draft Lottery on Monday, May 5, 2025, and have the No. 1 pick in the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft. The Islanders had a 3.5 percent chance of winning the lottery. The Islanders will pick No. 1 for the fifth time, the first since selecting John Tavares in the 2009 NHL Draft. The San Jose Sharks have the No. 2 pick with an 18.5 percent chance of winning the lottery. The Chicago Blackhawks have the No. 3 pick, and the Utah Hockey Club have the No. 4 pick. The 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with the first round on June 27 (7 p.m. ET) and rounds 2-7 on June 28 (Noon ET). The lottery, which was held live on television at the offices of NHL Network in Secaucus, New Jersey, set the order of selection for the first 16 picks for the teams that failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Only the two top picks were determined by the lottery. The remaining teams were slotted in by the order of their finish in the standings. Picks 17-32 will be determined by the results of the playoffs.
