That's not surprising since the most likely teams to win the lottery are at the bottom of the standings, and the Flames haven't finished at the bottom of the standings very often. The teams that are likely to drop after the lottery are also the bottom teams. The "mushy middle" teams aren't impacted by the lottery very often.
Out of 45 draft lottery draws that have been held over the years, only 12 were won by team with worse than 5th-best odds, in 9 different lotteries. In 4 of those 9 seasons, the Flames made the playoffs and weren't in the lottery. In 4 of the other 5 seasons, the Flames finished above the team that won the lottery, so the results didn't change anything for the Flames.
Since the draft lottery was introduced, the Flames have only finished bottom-5 three times. 1998 was an expansion year, so they still dropped from 5th to 6th because Nashville had the 2nd overall pick. In 2014, the Flames had the 4th-best odds and Florida won the lottery with the 2nd-best odds. 2016 was the only year the lottery had an impact on the Flames, when Winnipeg won from the 6th-best odds, bumping the Flames back one, but it didn't make a difference and they still got Tkachuk.
__________________
Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
Last edited by getbak; 10-26-2025 at 02:39 PM.
|
