The Blackhawks had only an 8.2 percent chance of jumping into the Top 3 of the 2019 NHL Draft after finishing 12th in the NHL this season with 84 points. But the ping pong balls bounced favorably on Tuesday night and they moved up nine spots to No. 3 overall.
It's the second straight year the Blackhawks were part of the lottery show. Last summer they were at No. 8 and took defenseman Adam Boqvist.
"Feeling I had was obviously very excited," GM Stan Bowman said on a conference call. "When I saw that Minnesota card turn over, I knew at that point that it was supposed to be us picking at 12 and I knew that we were in the top 3. I had a premonition a couple of weeks ago. I just had a feeling that we were going to pick third. Looking back to the last time the draft was in 2006, we were picking third, drafted a pretty good player named Jonathan Toews.
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"I had a dream that it happened again, we're picking third. And sure enough it came true."
The Blackhawks have drafted at No. 3 overall five times in franchise history: Toews (2006), Cam Barker (2004), Eddie Olczyk (1984), Denis Savard (1980) and Terry Caffery (1966).
"We're going to get a really good player there," Bowman said. "Now is the time to kind of dig in and really make sure we know these guys the best we can. You don't get a chance to pick this high very often. You get a real opportunity to get a special player. Just very, very excited for the entire organization and for the city to know that we're going to have a top player coming to town."
Most notable No. 3 overall picks in recent memory include: Jesperi Kotkaniemi (2018), Miro Heiskanen (2017), Pierre-Luc Dubois (2016), Dylan Strome (2015) and Leon Draisaitl (2014).
NHL
The NHL Draft is from June 21-22 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The Blackhawks currently have seven selections: 1st, 2nd, two 4th's, 5th, 6th and 7th.
Full draft lottery results:
No. 1: New Jersey Devils
No. 2: New York Rangers
No. 3: Chicago Blackhawks
No. 4: Colorado Avalanche
No. 5: Los Angeles Kings
No. 6: Detroit Red Wings
No. 7: Buffalo Sabres
No. 8: Edmonton Oilers
No. 9: Anaheim Ducks
No. 10: Vancouver Canucks
No. 11: Philadelphia Flyers
No. 12: Minnesota Wild
No. 13: Florida Panthers
No. 14: Arizona Coyotes
No. 15: Montreal Canadiens