The Columbus Blue Jackets will have the fourth overall pick in the 2024 National Hockey League Draft, which will be held from June 28 to 29 at The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada. The NHL Draft Lottery, which took place tonight, determined the club’s draft position. The San Jose Sharks won the first drawing and will hold the first overall choice, while the Chicago Blackhawks won the second drawing and will take second place.

The end result of tonight’s draft lottery: 1 – San Jose Sharks; 2 – Chicago Blackhawks; 3 – Anaheim Ducks; 4 – Columbus Blue Jackets; 5 – Montreal Canadiens; 6 – Utah (formerly Arizona); 7 – Ottawa Senators; 8 – Seattle Kraken; 9 – Calgary Flames; 10 – New Jersey Devils; 11 – Buffalo Sabres; 12 – Philadelphia Flyers; 13 – Minnesota Wild; 14 – San Jose (from Pittsburgh Penguins); 15 – Detroit Red Wings; 16 – St. Louis Blues. The remaining draft places will be determined after the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“This year’s draft class appears to be very good, and while we would have preferred to have won the lottery and taken the first overall pick, there will be exciting players available when we make our selection,” stated Blue Jackets President of Hockey Operations John Davidson. “Our scouts have done an excellent job this year. We will continue to work hard and be prepared to add a very good player to our organization’s exceptional group of young players and prospects as we strive for a bright future.”

The Blue Jackets presently have seven picks in the 2024 NHL draft. Columbus has its own pick in each of the first six rounds, as well as the Los Angeles Kings’ third-round pick, which was acquired as part of a trade on March 1, 2023. The club’s second-round pick is a conditional 2024 or 2025 pick acquired as part of a three-team transaction with the Kings and Philadelphia Flyers on June 6, 2023.

The NHL Draft Lottery is a weighted lottery mechanism that decides the order of selection for the first 16 picks in the NHL Draft, with the top two positions assigned for the fourth consecutive year. Two drawings were held, with the first determining the club that placed first overall and the second determining the team that placed second. A team could only advance 10 spots if it won one of the draws. The lottery was held for teams who did not make the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season.

Under the lottery system, the Blue Jackets had the fourth-best chance (9.5 percent) of winning the first lottery. The percentage likelihood of being chosen in the 2024 NHL Draft Lottery was the following: San Jose (18.5 percent), Chicago (13.5 percent), Anaheim (11.5 percent), Columbus (9.5 percent), Montreal (8.5 percent), Utah/formerly Arizona (7.5 percent), Ottawa (6.5 percent), Seattle (6.0 percent), Calgary (5.0 percent), New Jersey (3.5 percent), Buffalo (3.0 percent), Philadelphia (2.5 percent), Minnesota (2.0 percent), Pittsburgh (1.5 percent), Detroit (0.5 percent), and St. Louis (0.5 percent).

According to NHL Central Scouting’s 2024 Draft Prospect Rankings, center Macklin Celebrini of Boston University (Hockey East, NCAA) is the best North American skater, followed by Michigan State University (Big 10, NCAA) defenseman Artyom Levshunov and Medicine Hat (WHL) center Cayden Lindstrom. Anton Silayev of Nizhny Novgorod (KHL, Russia) was the top-ranked international skater, followed by SKA St. Petersburg Jr. (MHL, Russia) right wing Ivan Demidov and Jukurit (Liiga, Finland) center Konsta Helenius. The complete rankings are available at https://www.nhl.com/draft/prospects/2024.