The 1995 NHL Entry Draft was held at the Edmonton Coliseum (now Rexall Place) in Edmonton, Alberta. The drafting order was now set partially by a lottery system whereby teams would not be guaranteed first pick if they finished last. Instead, a draft lottery was instituted in which the winner of the lottery could move up a maximum of four spots in the first-round draft order. The Los Angeles Kings won the lottery, and thus moved up four spots from seventh to third. The last-place finishers, the Ottawa Senators did not lose the first overall pick through the lottery and picked Bryan Berard.
Selections by round:
Club teams are located in North America unless otherwise noted.
The NHL Entry Draft is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL) systematically select the rights to available amateur ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirements (North American players 18–20 years old and Europeans of all ages entering league for the first time, all others enter league as unrestricted free agents). The NHL Entry Draft is held once every year, generally within two to three months after the conclusion of the previous season. During the draft, teams take turns selecting amateur players from junior, collegiate, or European leagues.
The first draft was held in 1963, and has been held every year since. The NHL Entry Draft was known as the "NHL Amateur Draft" up until 1979. The entry draft has only been a public event since 1980, and a televised event since 1984. The order is determined by the standings at the end of the regular season, but with one team winning the NHL Draft Lottery and moving up 4 picks in the draft order. Teams at the bottom of the regular season standings are more likely to win the lottery.
A draft is a process used to allocate certain players to sports teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selects a player, the team receives exclusive rights to sign that player to a contract, and no other team in the league may sign the player.
The best-known type of draft is the entry draft, which is used to allocate players who have recently become eligible to play in a league. Depending on the sport, the players may come from college, high school or junior teams or teams in other countries.
An entry draft prevents expensive bidding wars for young talent and ensures that no one team can sign contracts with all of the best young players and make the league uncompetitive. To encourage parity, teams that do poorly in the previous season usually get to choose first in the postseason draft.
Other types of drafts include the expansion draft, in which a new team selects players from other teams in the league; and the dispersal draft, in which a league's surviving teams select players from the roster of a newly defunct franchise.
Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla (pronounced /dʒəˈroʊm ɨˈɡɪnlə/; born July 1, 1977) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player for the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL). A six-time NHL All-Star, he is the Flames' all-time leader in goals, points, and games played, and is second in assists to Al MacInnis. Named the Flames captain at the start of the 2003–04 season, Iginla was the first black captain in NHL history. He has represented Canada internationally on numerous occasions, helping Team Canada to its first Olympic gold medal in 50 years at the 2002 Winter Olympics and another gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
As a junior, Iginla was a member of two Memorial Cup-winning teams with the Kamloops Blazers, and was named the Western Hockey League's Player of the Year in 1996. He was selected 11th overall by the Dallas Stars in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, but was later traded to Calgary and has played his entire professional career with the Flames. He led the NHL in goals and points in 2001–02, and won the Lester B. Pearson Award as its most valuable player as voted by the players. In 2003–04, Iginla led the league in goals for the second time and captained the Flames to the Stanley Cup Finals, leading the league in playoff scoring. Iginla scored 50 goals in a season for a second time in 2007–08, has scored 500 goals and 1,000 points in his career and is one of seven players in NHL history to score 30 goals in 11 consecutive seasons. Known for his polite and generous nature, Iginla participates in numerous community events and donates $2,000 to charity for each goal he scores.
Kevin Weekes (born April 4, 1975) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who most recently played for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is now a color commentator on Hockey Night in Canada, and a studio analyst for NHL on the Fly.
Weekes' career began with the Owen Sound Platers of the Ontario Hockey League. He also had a brief stint with the Ottawa 67's.
Chosen 41st overall by the Florida Panthers in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, he joined the team for the 1997–98 season, going 0–5–1 in 11 appearances for the Panthers. The following summer he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in a trade for Pavel Bure and compiled a 6–15–5 record in 31 appearances over a season and a half before being traded to the New York Islanders halfway through the 1999–2000 season. At the conclusion of that season he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he played until late in the 2001–02 season when he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.
He played in a tandem with Arturs Irbe, helping lead the Hurricanes to the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals while recording two shutouts in the playoffs, establishing a Hurricanes team record.