The NHL Draft Lottery is a silver lining at the end of a painful season for fans of the league’s cellar-dwellers, and that will be especially true this season with Connor Bedard eligible for the 2023 draft and an overwhelming favorite to go first overall.
Bedard will likely be a true franchise-changing player, and he will in all likelihood be the best player to join the NHL since Connor McDavid, leaving teams well incentivized to finish dead last in the 2022-23 season.
Luckily, the league’s recent restructure of the draft lottery rules will hopefully prevent full-blown tanking to an extent, as the team finishing with the league’s worst record will still hold just a 25.5% chance of claiming first overall.
The betting market for which team will emerge with the league’s worst overall record has been posted to Bet365 and FanDuel as of the time of writing, and I believe is currently providing some strong options to bettors.