Before the Dallas Stars host the 2018 NHL Draft in June, they’ll take their chances in the NHL Draft Lottery tonight.
As an anti-tanking measure, the league distributes top picks among non-playoffs teams through a random draw. The 2017 edition was particularly dramatic as the New Jersey Devils jumped from fifth to first at the expense of the luckless, last-place Arizona Coyotes, who were demoted to seventh.
The Stars, of course, moved from eighth to third last year. And GM Jim Nill knows what landing one of the very highest picks can mean for an organization’s future (oh it u, Miro Heiskanen), as Mike Heika reports:
“History shows it makes a very big difference to be able to move up into the top three,” said Stars general manager Jim Nill.