The possibility of it all is tantalizing for an organization attempting to redirect while maintaining competitive integrity.<\/p>\n
That is considering the impacts made by the most recent first-overall picks, like Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd (2022) in Montreal, Connor Bedard (2023) in Chicago, Macklin Celebrini (2024) in San Jose, and Matthew Schaefer (2025) on Long Island.<\/p>\n
The Rangers thought they struck lottery gold not too long ago, when the ping-pong balls bounced their way into one of the top two picks in back-to-back drafts in 2019 and 2020. <\/p>\n
![\"Gavin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/mckenna-main-1.jpg\")
Gavin McKenna skates during Penn State\u2019s March 27 game. Getty Images<\/p>\n
But Kaapo Kakko, whom the club took at No. 2 in 2019, now plays for Seattle, and the jury is still out on 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re.<\/p>\n
McKenna is widely considered NHL-ready, but he is not necessarily expected to headline in Year 1 like Schaefer just did.<\/p>\n
The ceiling for McKenna is believed to be much higher than the other prospects expecting to hear their names called early in the draft. <\/p>\n
McKenna\u2019s overall offensive game captured teams\u2019 attention, but its depth and potential upside separated the Penn State product from the rest of the pack.<\/p>\n
A second crack at developing a first-overall pick could rejuvenate a Rangers team that got younger as the 2025-26 season went along.<\/p>\n
While McKenna has been largely considered the consensus top selection, the Rangers could have their pick of the litter at the top of a draft class if the top pick falls into their lap.<\/p>\n
Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg is expected to go at No. 2, which the Rangers have an 11.2 percent chance of landing.<\/p>\n
After the Blueshirts jumped from what could\u2019ve been as low as the No. 15 pick to drafting Lafreniere at first overall in 2020, the organization is well within reach of a repeat six years later.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/new-york-rangers-gm-chris-111616280.jpg\")
Chris Drury addresses reporters during a September 2025 press conference. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n
The NHL Draft Lottery, which will be broadcast live from NHL Network studios at 7 p.m. on ESPN, will determine the order of selection for the first 16 picks in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
All of the teams participating either did not qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs or have acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff teams.<\/p>\n
The drawing will be conducted in two phases to decide which teams will select first and second in the draft.<\/p>\n
Under lottery rules, teams can move up a maximum of 10 spots. Therefore, only the top 11 seeds are eligible to receive the first-overall pick.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The NHL uses a four-number combination system to determine the selection order. <\/p>\n
There are four balls numbered 1 to 14 and 1,001 possible four-number combinations. <\/p>\n
One combination is designated as a redraw (11, 12, 13, 14), which allows the league to divide by 1,000 among the 16 teams that did not qualify for the postseason.<\/p>\n
Using the final regular-season standings and the lottery odds determined by the Board of Governors, each team receives an allotment of randomly assigned four-number combinations.<\/p>\n
Since the Canucks finished in last place, Vancouver receives 185. The Rangers, who finished 30th in the NHL, receive 115.<\/p>\n
The lower a team places in the NHL regular-season standings, the more lottery tickets it receives.<\/p>\n
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After McKenna and Stenberg, a group of defensemen is expected to go one by one.<\/p>\n
Left-handed blueliner Carson Carels of the Western Hockey League, as well as right-handed defenseman Chase Reid of the Ontario Hockey League and the WHL\u2019s Daxon Rudolph, could go in any order near the top of the draft.<\/p>\n
Incoming sophomore at the University of North Dakota, RHD Keaton Verhoeff, is also projected to be one of the first few defensemen taken.<\/p>\n
Among the forward group, Caleb Malhotra \u2014 son of former Ranger Manny Malhotra \u2014 is one player who likely entices the Rangers. Committed to Boston University, a major bonus among a Terrier-riddled Rangers organization, Malhotra is considered the center of the draft.<\/p>\n
The OHL\u2019s Ethan Belchetz and Nikita Klepov may also be among the Rangers\u2019 considerations within the top five picks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rangers enter the NHL draft lottery Tuesday with the third-best odds of winning the No. 1 pick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4823,385,61536,99],"class_list":["post-624837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}