2015 NHL draft lottery: Here are every team's odds at landing Connor McDavid

Connor McDavid will be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft. But which team will win the honor of selecting him? Here are the odds.

source : broadstreethockey.com

The NHL draft lottery was bad to us back in 2007.

The Flyers were by far the worst team in the NHL that year -- the only time in their history they finished as the worst team in hockey, which through nearly 50 seasons is pretty impressive -- and yet, when the ping pong balls fell, the top pick was awarded to the Chicago Blackhawks instead of the Flyers.

Philadelphia missed out on consensus top choice Patrick Kane and instead drafted James van Riemsdyk with the No. 2 overall pick. As it turned out, Philly was not a patient enough place for the 

Central Jersey native JvR, and he was traded in 2011 after "disappointing" in his time here. Meanwhile .... well, we all know what Patrick Kane has done in Chicago since his draft year, including one particular goal that we shall not speak of.

Anyway, the point is that the draft lottery sucks -- and this year, it could suck a whole lot more. There are two prized prospects in this year's draft, Erie Otters forward Connor McDavid and Boston University stud Jack Eichel, so the NHL-worst Buffalo Sabres are guaranteed at least one of those two players. But the second-worst Arizona Coyotes could get bumped back to third in the draft order after the lottery, leaving them without one of those two big-name stars.

That's not to say any of the potential No. 3 picks in this draft are bad. There's Boston College defenseman Noah Hanifin or McDavid's Erie teammate Dylan Strome, and surely they would be good picks too. But neither has the name recognition or flat-out game-changing potential that Eichel and McDavid do, so the Coyotes are certainly hoping that the Sabres win the lottery and that the draft order doesn't change.

How does the draft lottery work?

It's pretty simple. One team will win the lottery. That team will select first overall in the draft, and every other team will subsequently select in order of finish. If Buffalo wins the lottery, nothing changes. If Buffalo loses the lottery, they will select No. 2 overall behind the team that wins the lottery, then Arizona will select No. 3 overall, and then we'll go down the list.

The Philadelphia Flyers finished with the seventh-worst record in the NHL this season. That means they will select either No. 1 overall (if they win the lottery), No. 7 overall (if a team worse than them wins the lottery) or No. 8 overall (if a team better than them wins the lottery).

The odds of winning are slightly different this year versus in previous years, as you'll see in the chart below.

Non-Playoff Team (Rank)	2015 Draft Lottery (Old Odds)	Odds of Staying Put	Odds of Falling
Buffalo (1)	20% (25%)	20.0%	80.0%
Arizona (2)	13.5% (18.8%)	20.0%	66.5%
Edmonton (3)	11.5% (14.2%)	33.5%	55.0%
Toronto (4)	9.5% (10.7%)	45.0%	45.5%
Carolina (5)	8.5% (8.1%)	54.5%	37.0%
New Jersey (6)	7.5% (6.2%)	63.0%	29.5%
Philadelphia (7)	6.5% (4.7%)	70.5%	23.0%
Columbus (8)	6.0% (3.6%)	77.0%	17.0%
San Jose(9)	5.0% (2.7%)	83.0%	12%
Colorado (10)	3.5% (2.1%)	88.0%	8.5%
Florida (11)	3.0% (1.5%)	91.5%	5.5%
Dallas (12)	2.5% (1.1%)	94.5%	3.0%
Los Angeles (13)	2.0% (0.8%)	97.0%	1.0%
Boston (14)	1.0% (0.5%)	99.0%	-

So ... the Flyers have a 6.5 percent chance of landing Connor McDavid. Not likely. But hey, you never know.

The NHL draft lottery will reportedly be held next Saturday, April 18 before that evening's NHL playoff action.

Habs : First Team To Crack Impressive Milestone

source : gohabsgo.com

The Canadiens may have lost a 3-2 decision in overtime to the Nashville Predators last night down in Tennessee, but in grabbing a point, they became the first team in the NHL to crack the century mark.

For reference, the Habs finished with 100 points on the nose last season.
This is the first time since 1987-89 that Montreal has posted back-to-back 100-plus point seasons.

The 2014-15 season has truly been one the greatest rides this team has had in quite some time, as the team now owns a mighty impressive 47-20-7 record, matching the highest win total in seven seasons.
Let's hope the good vibes keep rolling into the postseason!

Nhlpa 93 Hockey card game (SEGA) - Draft team

Patrick Roy, new coach for Avalanche, returns to Colorado to turn around team

Source : Denverpost.com

When the Avalanche needed a final piece for its roster in 1995 to become a championship club, it looked toward Quebec at Patrick Jacques Roy. Eighteen years later, the Avs look to Roy to lead them back to glory, this time as their coach and vice president of hockey operations.
The Avs again imported one of Quebec's biggest treasures, naming Roy their sixth coach in team history.

"This is an unbelievable day for me," Roy said in a team news release. "It's a new and exciting challenge that I am really looking forward to. I would like to thank Stan and Josh Kroenke for this opportunity as well as Joe Sakic for the trust they are putting in me. Almost 10 years to the day that I announced my retirement as a player, I am back in Denver and hope the fans are as excited as I am."

Because Roy remains in Florida, where he has a second home, and because of the holiday weekend, the Avs will not introduce him at a news conference until next week.

Even though Roy received the front-office title, it will be Sakic, named executive vice president of hockey operations two weeks ago, who has the final say on personnel matters.

"All along, Patrick was our top candidate," Sakic said in the news release. "Patrick has a great hockey mind. There is no one more passionate about this game. He will bring that winning attitude to our dressing room."

Not long after he took over in his new role, Sakic set his sights on Roy — despite originally saying he didn't want to hire a coach from junior hockey, where Roy has coached and been general manager since 2005 with the Quebec Remparts. Sakic quickly amended his words, however, saying the field for a coach was wide open and Roy would be an attractive candidate.

Sakic flew to Roy's offseason home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where the
deal essentially was hashed out. Roy, 47, becomes the most high-profile coach in Avs history as a Hall of Fame goalie who won four Stanley Cups (two with the Montreal Canadiens, two with the Avs) and a record three Conn Smythe Trophies in three decades (1986, 1993 and 2001). He compiled a 307-128-32 record with the Remparts, including a Memorial Cup championship in 2005. As he was known as a player, Roy has been a fiery coach in Quebec, with some occasional headline-grabbing because of his temper. But just as when he was a player, he has been known for winning.
"It's going to be good for all the young guys that we have. That's what the team needed," said Avs forward P.A. Parenteau, a Quebec native. "He's a proven winner. I'm really happy."
Playing goalie with Roy looking over your shoulder might be daunting, but Avalanche veteran 
Jean-Sebastien Giguere — who grew up idolizing Roy — welcomes the challenge.

"I'm really looking forward to working with him as my coach," Giguere said. "I watched him growing up, and I played against him, and now I get to play for him. It's very exciting. And in all seriousness, I think he'll be good for (Semyon Varlamov) too. To have a man like him giving you pointers as a goalie, that's not too bad."

Former Avs defenseman Adam Foote said he was "just so happy for Colorado hockey fans" with the hiring of his former roommate.

"The special part about Roy is, he's ready," Foote told KKFN 104.3.

• View slide show of Patrick Roy.

"He's spent almost a decade with his family in Quebec. It's such good timing for Patrick, and Joe made the right call."

Roy inherits a team that finished last in the Western Conference, a draft lottery team three of the past five seasons. It has 22 players signed for next season, at a salary cap-averaged payroll of about $56 million — about $9 million under the cap.

"He's been successful as a coach and a GM," former University of Denver coach George Gwozdecky said. "They're starting to put some of the pieces back in place that were here during the glory years of the Avalanche, and Patrick is another one of those key pieces."

Roy retired from the Avs in 2003 with 551 regular-season wins and 151 playoff wins. He becomes the first Hall of Fame goalie to coach an NHL team.

"This move instantly reinvigorates the fan base in Colorado," said former DU and Avalanche winger Mark Rycroft, now an analyst with the Altitude television network. "In my mind, to bring back a legend, a guy that's got some real experience coaching, it's a home run."

Habs : Bergevin wants big, fast, young team

Source : Montrealgazette.com

The Canadiens are a small, fast, young team

And general manager Marc Bergevin said Monday it’s going to take some time to transform the Canadiens into a big, fast, young team — a team like the Ottawa Senators, who eliminated Montreal in the playoffs with a team that is bigger, faster and younger.

“You don’t change the makeup of a team overnight,” Bergevin said as he answered questions at his end-of-the-season news conference Monday in Brossard. “It takes a long time to change the makeup of a team. Obviously, there’s 29 other teams that want to be big, fast and strong, but that’s easier said than done. But I believe balance is very important. You can’t win with all big guys and you can’t win with all small guys.”

Bergevin stressed character as one of the key components in the Canadiens’ success.

“I don’t care how big you are, if you have no character you’re not going to succeed,” the GM said.

“You look at a guy like Brendan Gallagher — one of the smallest guys in the league, but character off the charts. So we’ll need a balance. And that’s my job moving forward to bring balance to our club.”

The Canadiens made great strides this season, going from last in the 15-team Eastern Conference to second. Bergevin said he wasn’t surprised by the finish — “I thought we’d be in the pack” — but said the task next season will be a difficult one.

“There were five teams that made the playoffs last season that didn’t make it this season,” he noted. “New Jersey reached the final last season and didn’t make the playoffs this season. Does that mean

New Jersey is a bad team? No.”

Bergevin said the most important factor in a team’s success is depth and he defended his relative lack of activity at the trading deadline by saying: “You got to bring depth through your draft, through your young prospects coming through.”

Bergevin, who has six picks in the first three rounds of next month’s entry draft, said his philosophy is to select the best player, but added one option was to take size into consideration.

“It’s easier said than done because everyone is looking for those players, but we’ll look at it for sure,” Bergevin said.

Bergevin acted as a morale booster when asked about goaltender Carey Price and centre David Desharnais, two players who could have had better seasons.

“Can Carey be better? He’ll be the first one to admit he can be better and he said he will be better,” Bergevin said. “I have faith in him that he will be better. He had some good stretches and he had some so-so stretches. And that’s part of being a young goaltender and we’re going to move forward with him and I’m 100 per cent behind him.”

On Saturday, Price suggested the pressure that comes with playing in Montreal might be getting to him. He said he missed being anonymous and added he has stopped going to the grocery store. The goaltender described himself as a “Hobbit in a hole.”

Bergevin said he has talked with Price and is willing to do whatever he can to help the goaltender, even if it means doing Price’s groceries.

Bergevin said Price talked to the media after the team lost, after he got hurt and after “he didn’t feel he performed up to his potential.”

The GM added: “The first step is that he faced the music, which to me that showed character.”
Bergevin also noted that goalies mature later than other players and their mistakes are more noticeable.

“If a forward plays a bad game, it often goes unnoticed unless you really pay attention,” Bergevin said. “If a defenceman makes a mistake, it becomes a scoring chance, and if a goalie makes a mistake it’s a goal.”

Bergevin concluded his remarks on the goaltender by saying: “I have 150 per cent faith in Carey Price.”

As for Desharnais, his production tailed off after he signed a four-year, $14-million contract extension. Bergevin, who wanted to lock up Desharnais before he became eligible for arbitration this summer, said the centre knows he can play better.

“He’s still a young player and I expect him to rebound,” the GM said.

Bergevin said his overall game plan remains the same.

“I’m standing pat,” he said. “I made it clear from Day 1: I want to make this team good for years to come, not just for one year.”

But there will be some changes.

Defenceman Tomas Kaberle and his $4.25-million cap hit will disappear, although Bergevin said he will explore trading the Czech veteran before exercising his second amnesty buyout.

There will probably be a spot on the top two lines as unrestricted free agent Michael Ryder looks elsewhere for the first long-term deal of his career.

And Bergevin hedged on whether he would start work on a long-term deal for P.K. Subban, who left Monday to join Team Canada at the world championship.

Jarred Tinordi will start next season in Montreal, particularly since Alexei Emelin will miss the start of the season as he recuperates from knee surgery that has yet to be performed.

Nathan Beaulieu, Greg Pateryn, Gabriel Dumont, Michael Bournival, Sebastien Collberg and Danny Kristo are among the prospects who will get a good look at training camp.

And then there’s Louis Leblanc, the Canadiens’ first-round draft pick in 2009. Bergevin admitted that Leblanc — with 10 goals, eight assists and a minus-18 rating in 62 American Hockey League games — took a step back this season.

But Bergevin said he talked to Leblanc last week and that he’s still part of the Canadiens’ future.

“He knows he has to be better and he knows it’s a big summer for him,” Bergevin said. “It’s going to be up to him. But he’s a good young player that we hope one day will play here.”