Odds released for 2013 NHL draft lottery

USATODAY

Finishing last isn't all it's cracked up to be this year.

The NHL draft lottery this year will make it possible for any non-playoff team (or a team that acquires the pick via trade) to land the top pick. As a result, the last-place finisher will have less of a chance to pick first.

The odds of the last-place team winning outright remain 25%, but in previous drafts, the lottery winner had a 48.2% chance. That's because teams could move up only four spots in the lottery, so if a team out of the bottom five won (as the New Jersey Devils did in 2011), the last-place team held on to the pick.

The Edmonton Oilers have drafted first overall the past three years: in 2010 as the 30th-place team and lottery winner (Taylor Hall), when New Jersey moved up from eighth to fourth (Edmonton took Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) and last year when they moved up one spot to beat out the Columbus Blue Jackets and take Nail Yakupov.

Defenseman Seth Jones and forward Jonathan Drouin are the favorites to be taken first overall at the June 30 draft in Newark, N.J.

No team can drop more than one spot in the draft order. The odds of winning:

30th place: 25.0%

29th place: 18.8%

28th place: 14.2%

27th place: 10.7%

26th place: 8.1%

25th place: 6.2%

24th place: 4.7%

23rd place: 3.6%

22nd place: 2.7%

21st place: 2.1%

20th place: 1.5%

19th place: 1.1%

18th place: 0.8%

17th place: 0.5%