The Rangers enter the NHL draft lottery Tuesday with the third-best odds of winning the No. 1 pick for the second time in six years.
Already guaranteed a top five selection after finishing this past season with the worst record in the Eastern Conference and the third-worst overall, the Blueshirts have an 11.5 percent chance of earning the right to draft projected top pick Gavin McKenna on the KeyBank Center stage in Buffalo on June 26.
The possibility of it all is tantalizing for an organization attempting to redirect while maintaining competitive integrity.
That is considering the impacts made by the most recent first-overall picks, like Juraj Slafkovský (2022) in Montreal, Connor Bedard (2023) in Chicago, Macklin Celebrini (2024) in San Jose, and Matthew Schaefer (2025) on Long Island.
The Rangers thought they struck lottery gold not too long ago, when the ping-pong balls bounced their way into one of the top two picks in back-to-back drafts in 2019 and 2020.
But Kaapo Kakko, whom the club took at No. 2 in 2019, now plays for Seattle, and the jury is still out on 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafrenière.
McKenna is widely considered NHL-ready, but he is not necessarily expected to headline in Year 1 like Schaefer just did.
The ceiling for McKenna is believed to be much higher than the other prospects expecting to hear their names called early in the draft.
McKenna’s overall offensive game captured teams’ attention, but its depth and potential upside separated the Penn State product from the rest of the pack.
A second crack at developing a first-overall pick could rejuvenate a Rangers team that got younger as the 2025-26 season went along.
While McKenna has been largely considered the consensus top selection, the Rangers could have their pick of the litter at the top of a draft class if the top pick falls into their lap.
Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg is expected to go at No. 2, which the Rangers have an 11.2 percent chance of landing.
After the Blueshirts jumped from what could’ve been as low as the No. 15 pick to drafting Lafreniere at first overall in 2020, the organization is well within reach of a repeat six years later.
The NHL Draft Lottery, which will be broadcast live from NHL Network studios at 7 p.m. on ESPN, will determine the order of selection for the first 16 picks in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft.
All of the teams participating either did not qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs or have acquired the first-round drafting positions of those non-playoff teams.
The drawing will be conducted in two phases to decide which teams will select first and second in the draft.
Under lottery rules, teams can move up a maximum of 10 spots. Therefore, only the top 11 seeds are eligible to receive the first-overall pick.
The NHL uses a four-number combination system to determine the selection order.
There are four balls numbered 1 to 14 and 1,001 possible four-number combinations.
One combination is designated as a redraw (11, 12, 13, 14), which allows the league to divide by 1,000 among the 16 teams that did not qualify for the postseason.
Using the final regular-season standings and the lottery odds determined by the Board of Governors, each team receives an allotment of randomly assigned four-number combinations.
Since the Canucks finished in last place, Vancouver receives 185. The Rangers, who finished 30th in the NHL, receive 115.
The lower a team places in the NHL regular-season standings, the more lottery tickets it receives.
After McKenna and Stenberg, a group of defensemen is expected to go one by one.
Left-handed blueliner Carson Carels of the Western Hockey League, as well as right-handed defenseman Chase Reid of the Ontario Hockey League and the WHL’s Daxon Rudolph, could go in any order near the top of the draft.
Incoming sophomore at the University of North Dakota, RHD Keaton Verhoeff, is also projected to be one of the first few defensemen taken.
Among the forward group, Caleb Malhotra — son of former Ranger Manny Malhotra — is one player who likely entices the Rangers. Committed to Boston University, a major bonus among a Terrier-riddled Rangers organization, Malhotra is considered the center of the draft.
The OHL’s Ethan Belchetz and Nikita Klepov may also be among the Rangers’ considerations within the top five picks.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
