New York Islanders win lottery, right to draft John Tavares

Results from the NHL's 2009 Draft Lottery are in and the league's most futile 2008-09 franchise retained the right to draft atop this summer's amateur draft.

The New York Islanders, for the fourth time in their 37-season history, will draft carry the first overall selection into the NHL Entry Draft when teams conviene on Montreal June 26-27 at Bell Centre.

This year's lottery drawing served to be as anti-climactic as could have been imagined. No team moved up or down from the position their regular season finish positioned them.

Here's how the first fourteen draft positions shook out:

1. New York Islanders
2. Tampa Bay Lightning
3. Colorado Avalanche
4. Atlanta Thrashers
5. Los Angeles Kings
6. Phoenix Coyotes
7. Toronto Maple Leafs
8. Dallas Stars
9. Ottawa Senators
10. Edmonton Oilers
11. Nashville Predators
12. Minnesota Wild
13. Buffalo Sabres
14. Florida Panthers

As stated above, the final order remained unchanged as the Islanders apparently won the secret drawing held in New York City prior to the announcement of the order on a television broadcast tonight at TSN's studios in Toronto.

Of the teams listed above, only the Islanders, Lightning, Avalanche, Thrashers and Kings had a chance at the first overall pick. Since winning the lottery could only propel a team a maximum of four spots, teams listed six through fourteen above could not win the first overall selection regardless of tonight's draft result. Below were each team's chances of winning the lottery, followed by the highest position they could have selected.

Islanders (48.2), Lightning (18.8), Avalanche (14.2), Thrashers (10.7), Kings (8.1), Phoenix (6.2), Maple Leafs (4.7), Stars (3.6), Senators (2.7), Oilers (2.1), Predators (1.5), Wild (1.1), Sabres (0.8), Panthers (0.5)

Islanders (1, no lower than 2), Lightning (1, no lower than 3), Avalanche (1, no lower than 4), Kings (1, no lower than 6).... Had these teams won the lottery; Phoenix could have jumped from 6 to 2, Toronto (7-3), Dallas (8-4), Ottawa (9-5), Edmonton (10-6), Nashville (11-7), Minnesota (12-8), Buffalo (13-9), Florida (14-10).

The consensus number one pick at the moment is the London Knights (OHL) John Tavares. Tampa Bay will take no issue with who'll fall into their laps at number two, six-foot six Swedish born defenseman Victor Hedman has been playing professional hockey for MODO in the Swedish Elite League for the past two seasons and is ready to step into the NHL next season. Hedman boasts Nicklas Lidstrom-like qualities as a calm pace-setter and minimal wasted energy. He doesn't use his body as much as scouts would like consider his frame, which has detered early comparisons to Chris Pronger.