The draft lottery isn’t a place you want to be year after year, but if your team is in it, you may as well win it.
The Blackhawks won the lottery in 2023 and selected Connor Bedard. They won it back in 2007 and selected future hall of famer Patrick Kane.
In 2026, they were already guaranteed a top four pick, and the team had a 13.5 percent chance to grab the top pick, second-best odds behind Vancouver.
But the ping pong balls didn’t bounce their way, as their chances for the top pick quickly dropped to 9 percent and then disappeared completely as the Toronto Maple Leafs won the lottery and will select number one.
So about that No. 4 pick, that’s where the Blackhawks landed, behind Toronto (1), San Jose (2) and Vancouver (3).
2024 – 13.5 % chance to win the top pick – selected 2nd overall – Artyom Levshunov
2025 – 13.5 % chance to win the top pick – selected 3rd overall – Anton Frondell
2026- 13.5% chance to win the top pick – will select 4th overall
“I think we were expecting, based on the odds, it was going to be three or four, and it was four, so we’ll pick one, two, three, four in my tenure here, so complete the set,” Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson said.
Who’s on the Blackhawks’ radar at No. 4?
Outside of free agency or making a trade, they would still like to find a forward to play alongside center Connor Bedard.
According to multiple outlets including ESPN and The Athletic, the top two prospects are both forwards, Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg.
McKenna just wrapped up his freshman year at Penn State. He was the first Nittany Lion to win the conference scoring title with 38 points in 24 Big Ten games and became just the third player all-time at Penn State to reach 50 points in a single season.
Meanwhile Stenberg won the gold medal with Sweden in the 2026 World Juniors and was teammates with current Blackhawk Anton Frondell.
Frondell, the 3rd overall pick from last year’s draft, appeared in 12 games with Chicago and scored three goals along with six assists.
These forwards are sure to be gone when the Blackhawks are on the clock with the 4th pick.
While there will still be high caliber forwards for the taking, there are also a lot of impressive d-men available, so Davidson will have his options on draft night.
“We’re going to get a great player. We’re going get a really good player. I think, you know, we’ve had, if you asked me a couple days ago how many players could be in contention for something like this, I think I probably could have put five or six guys into the mix. And so, you know, we’re going to get a player that we absolutely love, that we see as a very important piece of this moving forward,” he said.
Davidson also has between $13-14 million dollars in salary cap space, which gives the team financial flexibility to make a big splash in free agency or a trade.
- NHL Draft: June 26-27
- Free Agency: Begins July 1
This will be a busy offseason for Davidson as he hopes to avoid another date with the draft lottery in 2027.
The Blackhawks have plenty of picks in this year’s draft-
- 1st round: 4th overall pick
- 2nd round: 3 picks
- 3rd round: 1 pick
- 4th round: 1 pick
- 7th round: 2 picks
