Connor Bedard is the top prize in the EURO League draft that will take place this week, but the gap between him and every other prospect has shrunk, thanks to an injury he has sustained.
First-year NHLers who play a certain number of games (about 35 for skaters and 15 for goalies) get their Websim attributes in virtual leagues like EURO and those attributes don’t change much from that point on. If Bedard gets hurt again this season, his PO rating might not even be the best of this draft crop.
But chances are, Bedard will go at or near the top of the draft.
Which team gets a clear shot at him all depends on the annual draft lottery. If there was no lottery, the order for the draft would be: Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Prague, Lisbon, Hanover, Zurich, Edinburgh and Bratislava. Any of those teams can theoretically win the top pick in the league.
And if this league’s draft lottery history is any indication, the top pick won’t be going to those first three teams. In the past 10 seasons, the bottom team has won the top pick in the draft just once. That’s when Hanover took Valentin Nussbaumer first overall two seasons ago.
Here are the teams who picked first the last 10 seasons and where they were situated in the draft order before the lottery:
- Season 15: Stockholm (moved up from 4th) picked Artur Cholach
- Season 14: Hanover (1st) Valentin Nussbaumer
- Season 13: Edinburgh (8th) Karill Kaprizov
- Season 12: Gothenburg (7th) Adam Fox
- Season 11: Gothenburg (6th) Jack Hughes
- Season 10: Munich (6th) Jesper Bratt
- Season 9: London (4th) Dominik Lakatos
- Season 8: Oslo (5th) Matt Murray
- Season 7: Geneva (7th) Colton Parayko
- Season 6: Bern (3rd) Mark Stone
Four forwards who were taken in the NHL draft in June should get their Websim attributes in about 4 months. Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlson and Zach Benson made their NHL teams and all should have impressive attributes. Also available will be players who played their first NHL seasons last year. Forwards Noah Cates and Andrei Kuzmenko as well as goalies Stuart Skinner and Akira Schmid are among the players who could go in the top 10 of the draft.
