Chicago Blackhawks: Analyzing every No. 1 pick since Patrick Kane

The National Hockey League changed it’s NHL Draft Lottery rules for the 2016 NHL Draft. We will never know if it is because of the fact that the Oilers won it so many times in a short amount of chances but the rule was changed. Now, the top-three picks in the draft were going to be won via the lottery and then every pick after would just be reverse order of the standings.

Well, the Toronto Maple Leafs were lucky enough to be the first-ever winner of the lottery set up this way. The term “generational talent” gets thrown out there a lot but there really were two of them in back to back years. McDavid went in 2015 followed by the Maple Leafs picking Auston Matthews with the first overall pick in 2016. Matthews has come in and been one of the best players since day one.

His four-goal night on day one of his NHL life was the first step to his 40 goal rookie year. He now has 158 goals and 127 assists for 285 points in 282 games. He keeps getting better too which is scary. He, if he stays healthy, is on track to be a 700 goal scoring wagon. He has absolutely dominated the Chicago Blackhawks so far in his young career. He has five goals and nine assists for 14 points in eight career games against them. Matthews is going to torment them and a lot of teams for a long time.