What happened inside the room when the Sharks won the NHL draft lottery? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Editor’s note: Sheng Peng will be a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage at San Jose Hockey Nowlisten to it in the San Jose Hockey Podcast Nowand follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
SECAUCUS, N.J. – The biggest moment in San Jose Sharks history may not have happened on the ice, but in a small, nondescript NHL Network conference room.
The NHL held the actual draft lottery drawing about 60 minutes before the television reveal, which occurred around 7 p.m. ET, in a two-story building the league shares with MLB Network.
Twenty-one people were packed into the approximately 12-foot by 24-foot room. Among them were NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Ernst and Young auditor Scott Clarke and Smartplay International employee Will Markham.
Only one NHL team representative, Pittsburgh Penguins director of hockey operations and legal affairs Vukie Mpofu, attended the draw. Teams don’t really send representatives to either the draft lottery or the TV reveal anymore; that was more of a pre-COVID issue. The Sharks, for example, didn’t send anyone, not even former Jr. Shark Macklin Celebrini. the prize of this lottery draw.
As for the media, I was there, along with ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski and NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. Otherwise, league executives and staff filled the room.
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, who revealed the draft lottery order on television, was not in the room for the drawing. None of us were allowed to leave the room for any reason until the reveal was complete, except for a couple key exceptions.
Celebrini, the presumed No. 1 overall pick, was in the building but not for the actual lottery.
At about 5:30 pm, we were all ushered into the conference room and asked to put our phones in a sealed envelope. Laptops had to be left unopened or in a backpack. There would be no leaks of the result before the television announcement.
At 5:38, Bettman began the procedure by holding up two newspapers (today’s New York Times and the Wall Street Journal) to certify that it was indeed May 7, 2024. He then explained the lottery’s draft ground rules and introduced the team. and members of the media who were in the room.
It took Bettman more than five minutes to read all the rules, but in the end they were relevant, as we were about to witness two important and historic draft lottery events.
Fourteen lottery balls, numbered 1 to 14, were dropped into a Smartplay lottery machine and then mixed by wind in a transparent chamber. Markham, who operated it, said the NBA, among others, uses his machines, and this exact machine is headed to Chicago for Sunday’s NBA draft lottery.
From these 14 balls, four separate balls would be drawn to form a combination of four numbers. That combination (1,001 different ones are possible, all assigned to an individual team except one) would be used to determine the winners of the NHL draft lottery. 11-12-13-14 would mean a new draw, to keep the winning calculations at a simple 1,000. The Sharks had 185 possible winning combos out of 1,001.
Two draws are held, one for pick number 1 and one for pick number 2.
“Draw!” NHL vice president of events Thomas Meaney called for the first draw, to determine which team would pick No. 1 overall.
Current rules only allow teams to move up 10 spots in the draft lottery, so if any of the teams 12 through 16 had won the lottery, the Sharks would have automatically received the No. 1 pick.
“10,” Bettman announced when the first ball was revealed.
Meaney was screaming for a draw every 20 seconds.
“2”
Every team member and media member furiously tried to keep up by flipping through a five-page booklet with all the possible winning combinations and the corresponding team.
“7”
Perhaps the most important person in the room at that exact moment was Clarke, who has audited the NHL draft lottery since 2015. He also scanned the sheet and would be the first to announce the winner.
At this point, with a 2-7-10 tie, the Sharks had five chances to win the lottery (with a 4, 9, 11, 13 or 14).
The No. 2 Chicago Blackhawks were “3” away from overtaking the Sharks for the first pick.
Utah’s No. 6 hockey club was just an “8” away.
Ottawa’s No. 7 Senators were a “12” behind him.
The Seattle Kraken number 8 was a “5” away from there.
The Minnesota Wild were a “1” and a “6” away from moving up 10 spots from No. 13, which would give the Sharks the No. 1 pick, under the rules regarding teams from No. 12 to No. .16.
“Draw!”
“eleven”
“2-7-10-11,” Clarke said. “Saint Joseph.”
“San Jose will have the first pick in the 2024 NHL Draft,” Bettman announced at 5:50 p.m.
In just a few minutes, one of the most intense moments in Sharks history, on or off the ice, was over and, for once, they were the winners.
It was the first time the Sharks had earned the top pick. But there was still more story and drama ahead.
What about the No. 2 pick?
Earlier in the afternoon, ESPN host John Buccigross weighed in by revealing, from the NHL Network set, a rehearsal lottery order showing the Sharks at No. 1 and the new Utah club at No. 1. position 2.
LMAO. ESPN’s John Buccigross accidentally leaked all the lottery draft results, then tried to fake it as if they were “rehearsing” and then deleted the original tweet
Anyway, it looks like San Jose is getting Celebrini and Utah up to the #2 spot. pic.twitter.com/1YjcVkCHRJ
– Budd Jacket (@BuddJacket) May 7, 2024
That certainly fueled conspiracy theorists on the Internet, baselessly convinced that the NHL was rigging the lottery, that a fix was already in place.
“Draw!”
“2-4-8-11 is Saint Joseph.”
This forced a redraw because the Sharks’ choice had already been decided. After all, they couldn’t win the lottery twice.
The Sharks also had the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 14th, albeit top-10-protected, 2024 first-round pick, which they acquired in the Erik Karlsson trade, but that pick couldn’t go higher than No. 4. The No. 2 pick It wasn’t in play there either.
Bettman revealed that this was the first time as commissioner that he had witnessed a new draw.
2, 8 and 4 were the first three numbers announced, so Utah did not have a four-number combination to move up. Pittsburgh also didn’t have a four-number combination to move up.
Then came the redesign.
“3-9-11-14 is San José.”
“Wow,” Bettman said with a smile.
Bettman, NHL commissioner since 1993, had seen two draws on the same day.
14, 11 and 3 were the first three numbers announced, but Utah needed a “7” to advance. Pittsburgh again had no chance of moving up.
Let’s move on to the second redesign.
“3-6-11-14 is Chicago.”
6, 11 and 3, however, were the first three numbers drawn, so both Utah and Pittsburgh had no chance of moving up.
What a relief for Buccigross… and for the NHL.
“Chicago has the second pick in the 2024 NHL Draft,” Bettman announced and then smiled. “Thank you all for being here tonight and you are not allowed to leave the room until the announcement is made on television.”
NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer left the room to transport the results to the broadcast, and Bettman appeared with Buccigross on ESPN’s lottery show.
It was 6:01 pm, about half an hour before the show started. So for about 45 minutes, fewer than two dozen people knew how much the Sharks’ world had just changed.