Regular-season games that changed the outcome of the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery

The NHL Draft Lottery was this week, and the results were met with unanimous praise and approval. But what if things had been different?Specifically, what if one game, or even one moment, from the 2025-26 season had played out just slightly differently? As it turns out, that can change everything. Because of the way the process works, and how the league hands out combinations to specific spots in the standings, any result that shifted those standings would also have ended up changing the lottery outcomes.Advertisement