NHL draft lottery: Detroit Red Wings luck would be ironic in 2026
It doesn't matter if the Detroit Red Wings have poor NHL draft lottery luck this year, with their pick headed to the St. Louis Blues.
Remember the 2020 NHL draft lottery, when the Detroit Red Wings were pushed back to picking fourth, despite owning, by far, the worst record in the league? They were in last place – 23 points behind the next-to-last team – when the NHL paused the 2019-20 season in mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic. But that's how it goes for the Wings in the lottery: If they're not picking where they finish, they're being pushed back.
Now the 2026 lottery is upon us, on Tuesday, May 5 (7 p. m. , ESPN) at NHL Network’s Secaucus, N.
J. , studio. The draw will determine the order of selection for the top 16 picks in the first round, which will take place June 26 in Buffalo, New York.
Of course, even good lottery luck for the Wings would be bad this year: General manager Steve Yzerman dealt the first-round pick to the St. Louis Blues for defenseman Justin Faulk (who at least has one more season on his contract). REPORT CARD: Red Wings 2025-26 grades feature some A's, some D's 2026 NHL draft lottery rules The draft lottery was introduced in 1995 and has undergone multiple changes, including a rule, after the Wings were pushed back from first to fourth in 2020, that teams can't fall back more than two spots.