'There's a good talent level there': Utah stays at No. 6 following uneventful NHL draft lottery

SALT LAKE CITY — The Coyote Curse continued in Utah.

Utah's yet-to-be-named NHL team got no beginner's luck during the NHL draft lottery Tuesday night.

The Arizona Coyotes never moved up in the lottery despite 18 chances in the desert. A change of scenery for the franchise didn't change their luck.

After the ping-pong balls were drawn, the Utah team remained in its pre-lottery position and will pick No. 6 in the 2024 NHL draft.

That was par for the course during Tuesday's lottery. There were no big surprises with the San Jose Sharks and the Chicago Blackhawks — the bottom two teams in the league — nabbing the top two picks.

The draft will be June 28-29 in Las Vegas.

"Every organization dreams of moving up and picking at one, right, so we were all very hopeful that that lottery balls were gonna bounce our way," Utah general manager Bill Armstrong said. "Then reality hits it and they flip the card and you're like, 'OK, well, we didn't move back, let's pick at six, we're going to get a real good player.'"

Armstrong said he likes the prospects that will be available for the team. The top of the draft is defenseman-heavy, with Canada's Sam Dickinson, University of Denver's Zeev Buium, and 6-foot-7 Russian Anton Silayev all potentially in the mix.

The Utah team could also swing for the fences with 17-year-old forward Cole Eiserman, who may be the best goal scorer in the draft (the rest of his game needs some developing, though).

It's unlikely any player Utah chooses will be ready to play minutes next season, though. Armstrong said the straight-to-the-NHL players are usually only top-three selections. Still, he likes the options his team will have at No. 6.

"I think there's a good talent level there," Armstrong said. "They're young men that are 18. And some of them are still late developers, and you can just see glimpses of who they're going to be. There's some good talent there. There's some good defensive talent or some good offensive players that are there. I like this year's draft, and I know our scouts are excited about where we're picking and the opportunity to pick some of that talent."

Since taking over the Arizona (now Utah) franchise in 2020, Armstrong has made three picks in the top 10. He took forward Dylan Guenther at No. 9 in 2021, center Logan Cooley at No. 3 in 2022, and defenseman Dmitry Simashev at sixth last year.

Guenther and Cooley shined at the end of last season sharing a line, and Simashev earned a role as an 18-year-old on a KHL team (he's under contract for at least one more season in Russia) that made it to the Gagarin Cup final.

So far, that's a pretty good track record, and Armstrong thinks he and his group are only getting better at figuring out that spot in the draft.

"When I was with St. Louis (as a scout and assistant general manager) and we were always picking around 20 to 26, we kind of honed in on that area," he said. "Now that we've been going through the rebuild, we've been picking basically three to six. And I think the more you pick there the better you get there. I do believe that."

Here are the top 16 picks following the lottery:

1. San Jose Sharks
2. Chicago Blackhawks
3. Anaheim Ducks
4. Columbus Blue Jackets
5. Montreal Canadiens
6. Utah
7. Ottawa Senators
8. Seattle Kraken
9. Calgary Flames
10. New Jersey Devils
11. Buffalo Sabres
12. Philadelphia Flyers
13. Minnesota Wild
14. San Jose Sharks (from Pittsburgh)
15. Detroit Red Wings
16. St. Louis Blues

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