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Originally Posted by burnitdown
Calling that utter nonsense is a bit dramatic. All teams that don't make the playoffs are lottery teams. We finished tied for the last playoff spot in the West despite a historic winning streak and no significant injuries. With Dallas potentially adding Bishop to shore up their pathetic goaltending and Winnipeg's young guns getting a year older, we're far from guaranteed lock to make the playoffs...especially if we have Elliott and an unproven goalie leading the charge.
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Conventionally speaking "lottery teams" are those which boast better than extremely slim odds of winning the draft lottery, and the term is most commonly used to describe the four or five worst teams in the NHL, as distinct from the more general "non-playoff teams."
It frankly surprises me that you are so much more bullish on the perennial lottery-ranked Jets than you are on the Flames who have made the playoffs two of the last three years. As for your appraisal of the season, the Flames also managed to finish with one fewer wins in the season than the division winner, despite one of their worst starts to the season. This also came in a year in which both of the team's top forwards fell back a little from their average production, and in which sophomore high-end draft pick Sam Bennett struggled offensively.
The point is that there are a lot of ways to construct a narrative for the Flames' 2016–17 season, but I don't believe it is possible to write that story leading to a conclusion that they are destined to be among the five worst teams in the League next year, regardless of who is playing goal.