While Connolly doesn't stay in the top five in this hypothetical redraft of the 1999 draft lottery in the first round, he does stick in the top 10. He also goes to the same team, since the Isles had a whopping three picks in the top 10 in the first round of the 1999 draft lottery.
Connolly played a couple of good seasons for the Isles in New York before getting traded to the Sabres for the 2001-02 season in the Eastern Conference in Buffalo.
The Flames made a pretty good pick at 11th overall in the first round of the 1999 draft lottery. Left-winger Oleg Saprykin had a decent career in Calgary that was limited by injuries in the early-to-mid 2000s decade.
Instead of picking Saprykin, the Flames opt for a player who had a longer peak in the NHL, with former Oilers and Phoenix Coyotes center Mike Comrie at No. 11 overall in the first round of this redraft from 1999. Comrie had two 30-goal seasons for Edmonton and Phoenix in the early to mid-2000s, before injuries started catching up with him later that decade with the Senators and Islanders in 2008.
Comrie was one of fewer than 10 forwards from this draft class who scored over 500 career points and 150 goals in the regular season.
The Panthers' first pick in the first round of the 1999 draft lottery, and the final pick of the lottery in the top 12 picks, was winger Denis Shvidki from the USSR. Shvidki played fewer than 100 career regular season games in the NHL.
Instead of picking Shvidki with the final lottery pick in the first round of the '99 draft, the Panthers get versatile winger Ryan Malone from the Pens in Pittsburgh. Malone played over a decade in the NHL, and made the postseason three times with the Penguins and the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2000s and early 2010s.