New York Islanders

Islanders Notebook: Draft Lottery Date, All-Star Game Cancelled

Published

3 weeks ago

April 29, 2025

Russ Macias

new-york-islanders-nhl-all-star-game-ubs-arena

It’s a day of quick but significant stories for the New York Islanders.

First, Newsday’s Andrew Gross announced that the Islanders won’t be hosting an All-Star Game in 2026, per Gary Bettman.

“We’ll have an event at UBS before we go to the Olympics, but then we’ll do something that’s more focused on a major hockey event for the following year,” Bettman said. “We have a little bit of time to finalize what we’re doing.” (Newsday)

It’s a blow for the Islanders. The organization desperately wanted to host an event and used this as a selling point for season-ticket sales. There’s already frustration amongst ticket holders, and this will not help matters. The All-Star Game would’ve been a great perk, but now there is some indeterminate “send-off event” that seems to be pretty unimportant. Bettman himself confirmed it will not be a hockey event.

Bettman and the NHL have refused to commit whatever the 2027 event ends up being to the Islanders and UBS Arena.

Draft Lottery:

Elsewhere, the 2025 NHL Draft Lottery will be held Monday, May 5.

The time will be announced later this week and will be available to watch on ESPN. Long Island’s own James Hagens is a candidate for the first-overall pick.

Typically, the lottery is held pregame before whichever game is slated to be played, but currently, there are none scheduled. All first-round matchups will finish by Sunday, if not way sooner.

The Islanders hold a 3.5% chance of winning the lottery and the first overall pick.

Here’s the full chart: