Kraken land top-10 pick in 2024 NHL entry draft

The Seattle Kraken have locked down the No. 8 pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.

Tuesday’s draft lottery set the order for the first 16 picks, among the teams that fell short of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Kraken had the eighth-best odds to win the lottery at 6%.

It turned out to be a perfectly routine year. No team moved up in the drawings for the top picks. The projected order, based on regular-season finish, went unchanged for the first time since 2010.

A year after their first playoff run, the Kraken finished 34-35-13, 25th out of 32 NHL teams. Coach Dave Hakstol was fired April 29, less than two weeks after the season ended. The search for his replacement is underway.

At least a 6-12-2 finish allowed the Kraken a crack at the top overall pick. A team is allowed to move up 10 selections, so only the league’s bottom 11 teams were eligible to hear their name called Tuesday at the NHL Network Studios in Secaucus, N.J.

The San Jose Sharks won the lottery, securing the top overall pick and the services of Macklin Celebrini, if desired.

Celebrini topped NHL Central Scouting’s final ranking of North American skaters and is the consensus No. 1 prospect of this year’s draft class. He’s a two-way forward celebrated for his complete game. At just 17, Boston University freshman Celebrini became the youngest to win the Hobey Baker Award as the best college hockey player in the country.

“(Celebrini’s) a special player and he belongs in that special category because in every environment, every situation he goes in, he can excel and that’s hard to do as a 17-year-old,” NHL Central Scouting director Dan Marr told NHL.com.

San Jose had the best odds of winning the lottery at 18.5% after sinking to last place in the NHL standings. It will be the Sharks’ first time picking first.

The Chicago Blackhawks, who won the draft lottery last year and selected Connor Bedard first overall, once again finished with the second-worst point total. They had the second-best odds of adding Celebrini to the mix at 13.5%, followed by the Anaheim Ducks at 11.5%.

Columbus (4th), Montreal (5th), Ottawa (7th) and Utah’s brand-new, unnamed team (6th) all had slightly better odds than the Kraken. The first round of the two-day draft is June 28 at Sphere in Las Vegas. 

There could be several players with local ties available to the Kraken at No. 8. Spokane Chiefs forward Berkly Catton is eighth on the final Central Scouting rankings and widely projected to go in the top 10. One spot below him in ninth, former Seattle Thunderbird Tij Iginla is looking to follow in his father Jarome Iginla’s NHL footsteps.

Celebrini and Catton are among the the usual cluster of prized centers, but if several top analysts are correct, this could be a defenseman-heavy Top 10. TSN’s Bob McKenzie has defenseman Zeev Buium, from the reigning national champion Denver Pioneers, going at No. 8, though several other pundits have him higher. The Hockey News’ Tony Ferrari thought Swedish defenseman Alfons Freij was the eighth-best option.