It's finally over.
The Columbus Blue Jackets concluded its 2022-23 regular season with a 5-2 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres Friday night, giving the club 59 points for the season on a 25–48–9 record.
The 59 points – as lowly as they may seem – were not good enough for the league's worst total, clinched last night by the Anaheim Ducks thanks to Columbus' overtime win over the Penguins, but the Jackets will enter the NHL Draft Lottery with the second-best odds for the top overall pick. This is kind of important this year, with presumptive top overall pick Connor Bedard of the WHL's Regina Pats expected to be a generational player who can change the trajectory of a franchise.
Columbus has a 13.5% chance of landing the top pick in the draft, with the Ducks holding a 25.5% chance to call Bedard's name. The Blue Jackets will have a 14.4% chance of earning the second pick, a 32.0% chance of earning the third pick, and a 40.2% chance of falling to fourth in the draft.
The lottery will be conducted live at the NHL studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, on Monday, May 8, at 7 p.m. It will be broadcast live on ESPN in the United States and on Sportsnet and TVAS in Canada.
Here is the full odds table for the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim | 25.5 | 18.8 | 55.7 | |||||||||||||
| Columbus | 13.5 | 14.4 | 32.0 | 40.2 | ||||||||||||
| Chicago | 11.5 | 11.5 | 7.4 | 40.7 | 28.8 | |||||||||||
| San Jose | 9.5 | 9.8 | 15.4 | 44.9 | 20.5 | |||||||||||
| Montreal | 8.5 | 8.8 | 24.5 | 44.2 | 13.9 | |||||||||||
| Arizona | 7.5 | 7.9 | 34.1 | 41.4 | 9.1 | |||||||||||
| Philadelphia | 6.5 | 6.9 | 44.4 | 36.5 | 5.6 | |||||||||||
| Washington | 6.0 | 6.4 | 54.4 | 30.0 | 3.2 | |||||||||||
| Detroit | 5.0 | 5.4 | 64.4 | 23.5 | 1.7 | |||||||||||
| St. Louis | 3.5 | 3.8 | 73.3 | 18.4 | 0.9 | |||||||||||
| Vancouver | 3.0 | 3.3 | 79.9 | 13.4 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Ottawa | 2.9 | 2.4 | 85.7 | 8.9 | 0.2 | |||||||||||
| Buffalo | 2.6 | 1.7 | 90.7 | 5.1 | >0.0 | |||||||||||
| Pittsburgh | 2.1 | 1.0 | 94.7 | 2.1 | >0.0 | |||||||||||
| Calgary | 0.8 | 0.3 | 97.9 | 1.1 | ||||||||||||
| Nashville | 0.8 | 0.2 | 98.9 |
Aside from Bedard, the crown jewel of this draft, three other top prospects have the skill to go No. 1 overall in a typical draft: Center Adam Fantilli of the University of Michigan, winger Matvei Michkov of SKA (Russia), and winger Leo Carlsson of Orebro HK (Sweden).
