NHL Draft Lottery: Seattle Kraken land fourth overall pick in upcoming draft
Tuesday night's NHL Draft lottery saw the Seattle Kraken secure the fourth overall pick in the upcoming NHL Draft.
The Montreal Canadiens won the lottery and earned the first pick, while the New Jersey Devils won the second position. All the rest of the 16 teams in the lottery were then placed in their rightful order.
The Kraken had the third-worst record in the NHL during their inaugural season, finishing the 2021-22 season at 27-49-6. They had an 11.5% chance to get the first pick. The NHL Draft lottery decides the first and second picks in the draft. All the rest of the teams are then slotted according to their order, so the worst pick the Kraken could've received was No. 5.
The NHL Draft is July 7-8 in Montreal, and the Kraken will certainly add some players destined to start their careers as members of the Coachella Valley Firebirds when the 2022-23 AHL season begins in October.
The Kraken brass will be busy during the draft. Due to multiple trades, the Kraken have 12 picks in the seven-round draft, including four picks in the second round and three picks in the fourth round.
More: Kraken GM says Firebirds will play early AHL games in Seattle while Arena is completed
While the team's first-round pick may not be destined for the Coachella Valley, several players chosen during this draft will start their careers in a Firebirds jersey and play at the still-being-built Acrisure Arena along the I-10 near Classic Club.
The AHL season starts in October and the arena is scheduled to be finished in December. Because of that, the Firebirds will play in Seattle for any home games they have during the first six weeks of the season.
Last year, in their first-ever NHL Draft, the Kraken had the No. 2 pick and chose Matt Beniers out of the University of Michigan. Beniers played his final college season at Michigan and joined the Kraken at the end of the year. He played in 10 games and had three goals and six assists.
As far as this year's first-round pick, some of the names at the top of the list favored by mock draft experts that could be a future Kraken star include Shane Wright, a center from the Ontario Hockey League; Juraj Slafkovsky, a left-winger from Finland; Simon Nemec the top defenseman in the draft from Slovakia; Logan Cooley, a center from University of Minnesota; and Matthew Savoie, a center for the Winnepeg team in the Western Hockey League.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Seattle Kraken land fourth overall pick in upcoming NHL Draft
