SECAUCUS, N.J. — About 30 minutes before the NHL holds its annual draft lottery, league commissioner Gary Bettman is making small talk and snacking on chips in a small room just down the hallway from the NHL Network’s studio.
He steps away from a brief conversation about the draft order and declares which outcome he’s rooting for. “I root for no controversy,” he said, smiling.
Well, almost.
The NHL draft lottery itself went off without a hitch or a hiccup on Monday. Chicago won the Connor Bedard sweepstakes by jumping from No. 3 to No. 1 in the draft order, pushing Anaheim into the No. 2 overall pick and Columbus to the No. 3 overall pick.
It was on the TV show about an hour later — when the draft order was revealed to the public via ESPN — that the flub occurred. As the network cut to a commercial break with the top three picks still a mystery, broadcaster Kevin Weekes spoiled the surprise.
“And there’s our first change in the order,” Weekes said, “with Columbus dropping to third, so now either Anaheim or Chicago will select first overall.”
Wait. What?
It wasn’t until the show returned from break — which must have seemed like an eternity to those watching at home — that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed Weekes’ slip-up by flipping over the No. 3 placard to reveal the Blue Jackets’ logo.
Both Weekes and the NHL declined to comment. A source with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic that a production error fed the wrong words into the teleprompter that Weekes was using, and that it wasn’t just a passing comment by the former NHL goaltender and veteran broadcaster.
Read more: NHL Mock Draft 2023: Connor Bedard to Blackhawks as we pick for every lottery team
Most importantly, it had no impact on the actual draft order, which was determined approximately an hour before the TV show. It only ruined the surprise element of the draft, particularly in Columbus, where fans gathered at a local brewery for a watch party.
“It was pretty evident what was going to happen (when they came back from break),” Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen said. “It spoiled the moment, I guess.”
What makes the mistake so surprising is that the NHL takes such great pains to make sure that the lottery is executed with strict adherence to so many minute details, with multiple checks and balances and independent eyes on the process.
On Monday, The Athletic was one of three media outlets granted permission to witness the lottery in person, a behind-the-scenes look at one of the league’s most tedious and important events. Here’s what it looks like from the inside:
6 p.m. ET: The league gathers all of the lottery witnesses in a small room. There are about 20 people in the room, including the three media members and two NHL franchise representatives: Philadelphia Flyers director of hockey operations Tom Minton and Alex Meruelo Jr., son of Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo and the club’s chief brand officer.
A little while later, Bettman’s grandson, Matthew, arrives to watch.
6:11 p.m. NHL spokesman John Dellapina lays out the guidelines to those who have not witnessed a lottery previously.
Cellphones will be put into brown envelopes for safekeeping so that nobody will spoil the surprise. Laptops will be taken, too. “Does anybody have an Apple watch or something similar?” Dellapina asks. “That’s gotta come off, too.”
No devices that can link to the internet are allowed once the lottery starts because the league does not want the lottery results leaked before the TV show. (Insert joke here.)
6:15 p.m. Bettman can work a room. He’s in a good mood and wants to talk hockey, sitting down next to his grandson in front of the three writers to get thoughts on the postseason: “Who do you like in the Cup finals?” he asks. It’s a light-hearted, relaxed chat.
The league hands out a five-paper collection of the pre-determined lottery numbers that have been assigned to all lottery teams. There are 1,000 different number combinations. There are 255 combinations that will result in the Ducks winning the lottery, 135 for the Blue Jackets, 115 for the Blackhawks, etc.
6:39 p.m. Steve Mayer, the NHL’s Vice President of Events and Entertainment, breaks the murmuring in the room. “In six minutes we’re going to do this.”
6:40 p.m. Cellphones, laptops, etc., are taken from everybody in the room. Nervous twitching commences. The camera kicks on in the back of the room. This is all being recorded.
6:44 p.m. Bettman walks to the front of the room as says, “Is it that time?” In his hands, he holds a small stack of papers … the lottery rules. The reading of the rules takes longer than the actual draw itself, but Bettman reads every last line.
6:55 p.m. This is old school. Bettman, to prove that this is a live recording on May 8, 2023, holds up not one, but three daily newspapers: The Bergen Record, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
6:57 p.m. Bettman introduces Martin Gorbachik, a lottery technician with Smartplay International, which, according to its website, “preserves drawing integrity for lottery and gaming organizations in 126 countries.” Gorbachik grabs a briefcase that holds the 14 numbered lottery balls that will be used to draw the four-digit combinations that will reveal the first and second overall picks.
Then Bettman introduces Steve Clarke from the accounting firm Ernst & Young, who sits to Bettman’s left at a table with two stacks of papers: one the lottery rules, and two the number combinations that apply to the clubs in the lottery.
Then he introduces the three media members and two club representatives. All are asked to wave toward the camera.
7 p.m. Gorbachik opens the briefcase and begins lifting the numbered ping-pong balls out of the briefcase, showing them to the camera and dropping them into a collection tube attached to the lottery machine. Bettman says the numbers firmly like he’s Count von Count from Sesame Street.
With all the balls approved and into the collection tube, Gorbachik is instructed to drop them into the machine. A lever is pulled, they tumble into the bin and the machine is started.
7:02 p.m. Thomas Meaney, an NHL VP of events, is positioned approximately 15 feet away from the lottery matchine with his back to the rest of the room. He is instructed by Bettman to shout “draw” every 20 seconds so that Gorbachik, who stands by the device, can’t be accused to timing his level pull to let a ball shoot up the cylinder.
Meaney has done this for several years. It’s not clear how the job fell to him, Dellapina said — he’s just good at it. After about 20 seconds, the first shout: “Draw!”
And right like that, the lottery is started, first to determine the No. 1 overall draft pick. The numbers are revealed in the span of 80 seconds: 5-13-4-9. (The order isn’t important, but they’re rearranged quickly — 4-5-9-13 — to make it easier for Clarke to look up the winner.)
“And the winner is…?” Bettman said. Clarke, after a momentary pause as he scrolls through the sea of numbers, finds the match: “Chicago Blackhawks,” he said. The room is absolutely quiet except for the humming of the lottery machine.
A few people are tracing through the numbers to see how this fell. Vancouver had 4-5-9-12. Columbus had 4-5-9-14. So close.
7:04 p.m. The same ping-pong balls are loaded back into the machine and allowed to bounce around for several seconds. (This is a great argument against those who would suggest the ping-pong balls are somehow manipulated to get a certain result. If that’s so, why don’t the same balls deliver the same numbers repeatedly?)
7:05 p.m. The second draw commences. 9-8-10-6. Clarke quickly looks up 6-8-9-10 and declares the winner of the second pick. “The Anaheim Ducks.”
And right like that, the draft lottery is finished.
This event, which has been front-of-mind for multiple clubs ever since Bedard became a rock star at the IIHF World Juniors Championship last winter, was over quicker than some of Bedard’s shifts with the Regina Pats.
7:08 p.m. Bettman seems delighted with how the draft was executed. He comes over to chat again with the media members about the results. He asks if anybody has seen Bedard play in person and how they think he compares to some of the great players in the game.
He also makes it clear that Daly asks not to be informed of the lottery results until he learns them himself through the TV show. Daly is not in the room, obviously, and nobody is allowed to leave the room except for those involved in the TV production, who need to get working on the event.
7:12 p.m. At a table on the far side of the room, the placards are removed from a carrying case and placed in front of league staffers. They take the draft order that was just established and order the cards accordingly so that Daly can flip them over one by one at the high-top table on the TV show set.
Repeatedly, they go over the order to make sure everything matches.
7:23 p.m. Bettman is called over to inspect the pile of logos, to make sure — one final time — that they’re in the correct order. Then the pile is watched ever so closely for the next 30 minutes before the TV show gets ready to start.
7:38 p.m. After more small talk, Bettman and his grandson leave for dinner. The lottery is Bettman’s operation, but the TV show is all Daly.
8 p.m. The show is about to start. An ESPN camera is stationed in the hallway and the placards are carried toward the studio by Clarke, the Ernst & Young accountant. ESPN’s John Buccigross welcomes in a TV audience before Game 3 of the Edmonton-Vegas series and sets the stage for the Bedard sweepstakes.
8:02 p.m. A joke is made — the first of many — about how twitchy the reporters appear to be, knowing the results and not being able to share them via social media or their websites.
8:09 p.m. Did Weekes just say that?
8:12 p.m. Daly flips over the final three placards: Columbus, then the winner, Chicago, and finally Anaheim. The lottery is finished. So is the TV show. The first went better than the second.
(Photo of Gary Bettman: Mike Stobe / NHLI via Getty Images)
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