Friends, the Calgary Flames failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. As such, rather than delve into the ups and downs of the greatest tournament in sports, we’re instead looking ahead to the upcoming 2025 NHL Draft.
We’ll dive deep into the upcoming draft class in the next little while, but in the meantime: let’s dive into the draft’s order of selection! (Stick-taps to our pals at PuckPedia for their pick information!)
First 16 picks, non-playoff teams
The first 16 picks in the draft go to the 16 teams that missed the playoffs, in reverse standings order.
- 1st: San Jose
- 2nd: Chicago
- 3rd: Nashville
- 4th: Philadelphia
- 5th: Boston
- 6th: Seattle
- 7th: Buffalo
- 8th: Anaheim
- 9th: Pittsburgh
- 10th: NY Islanders
- 11th: NY Rangers [1]
- 12th: Detroit
- 13th: Columbus
- 14th: Utah
- 15th: Vancouver
- 16th: Calgary [2]
The draft lottery, per John Shannon, is slated for May 5. Teams can move up by 10 draft spots, and the lottery only changes the order in the first round. The first 16 picks in the other six rounds will be in this order.
Note 1: The Rangers pick was conditionally traded to Vancouver in the J.T. Miller trade, and then by the Canucks to Pittsburgh in the Marcus Pettersson trade, but it was top 13 protected. The Rangers still have the option to transfer the pick, though.
Note 2: The Flames pick was conditionally traded to Montreal as part of the convoluted conditions in the Sean Monahan trade from 2022. The pick is top 10 protected, so if they win the lottery, their pick would move into the top 10 (up to 6th overall) and they would transfer Florida’s pick instead.
Second 16 picks: order partially determined by playoffs
The second 16 picks in each round will be determined by a combination of regular season results, in reverse standings order, and playoff results. The last four spots in each round will go to the four teams that advance to the conference finals (see “third section”), and that supersedes the order suggested in the first two sections. In other words: if Montreal wins the Stanley Cup, they would slide back from 17th to 32nd, and everyone else would move up a spot. (And so on for the other teams that make the final four.)
First section: playoff teams that didn’t win their divisions
- 17th: Montreal
- 18th: Calgary (from New Jersey)
- 19th: St. Louis
- 20th: Columbus (from Minnesota)
- 21st: Ottawa
- 22nd: Calgary (from Florida) [3]
- 23rd: Carolina
- 24th: Philadelphia (from Edmonton)
- 25th: Philadelphia (from Colorado)
- 26th: Nashville (from Tampa Bay)
- 27th: Los Angeles
- 28th: San Jose (from Dallas)
Note 3: As noted earlier, if the Flames win the draft lottery, this pick transfers to Montreal.
Second section: playoff teams that won their divisions
- 29th: Chicago (from Toronto)
- 30th: Nashville (from Vegas via San Jose)
- 31st: Washington
- 32nd: Winnipeg
Third section: the four teams that make the conference finals
- 29th: conference final loser with fewer regular season points
- 30th: conference final loser with more regular season points
- 31st: Stanley Cup Final loser
- 32nd: Stanley Cup winner
Calgary’s picks, pending the playoffs and lottery
Assuming no big surprises in the playoffs or the draft lottery, the Flames would send their pick (16th overall) to Montreal. They would receive New Jersey’s pick (18th overall) and Florida’s pick (22nd overall).
In the event that the Flames win the draft lottery – which is incredibly unlikely – then they would retain the 6th overall pick and Montreal would get Florida’s pick (22nd overall) instead.
We’ll have more info on the 2025 NHL Draft class in the coming weeks!
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