Draft Lottery results are a blessing for Chicago Blackhawks

The 2022 NHL Draft Lottery is complete. The Montreal Canadiens won the right to select Shane Wright with the first overall pick. The New Jersey Devils won the second overall pick where they will choose from a variety of good young prospects. The Chicago Blackhawks didn’t win anything.

That is a blessing in disguise for the Hawks. If they would have won one of the top two picks, they would have gotten to keep it. Instead, their selection remained at six so it now moves to the Columbus Blue Jackets as a result of the Seth Jones trade.

If the Hawks kept the pick, their 2023 pick would have gone to the Blue Jackets instead as a condition for the 2022 pick protection. The results are actually, based on that fact, a blessing in disguise.

Montreal is going to get a very nice player in Shane Wright. New Jersey will get a good player too. However, nobody in this draft comes close to Connor Bedard who will be the number one pick. The top of the draft is also much deeper. That is the Draft Lottery for the Hawks to win.

Not winning the draft lottery in 2022 is very good for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Keeping that pick in 2023 is much more valuable. For now, the Hawks don’t really have a bright future but that pick next year could really help them. Bedard would really impact the organization in the best way.

The Blackhawks are going to be in draft lottery contention again next year. They were really bad this year and there is a chance that they are even worse next year. Alex DeBrincat, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Kane are all entering contract years so we don’t know what becomes of their immediate future.

They also won’t likely have a goalie like Marc-Andre Fleury for most of the year. They were bad with a goalie that good, imagine if they run out there with Kevin Lankinen and Collin Delia next season. This could get ugly.

It would be very worth it, however, if they landed a player like Connor Bedard in the draft. He is dynamic and supremely skilled. The Hawks would make him the young primary point to build around which is something that they don’t have right now.

There is a chance that the Hawks still get into the first round this year. The second-round pick that the Minnesota Wild gave them could become a first if they make it to the Western Conference Finals and Fleury has at least four wins.

It is going to be interesting to see what happens in the draft for Chicago over the next two years. Tuesday’s results were very important for the clarity of this team’s plans in the immediate future when it comes to the draft.