Will the Flyers Win The NHL Draft Lottery? Does It Matter?
On Tuesday night, General Manager Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers enter the 2022 NHL Lottery with the 4th best odds of being awarded the top pick, but does it really matter if they win?
By achieving the fourth worst record in the league this season the Flyers enter the lottery with a 9.5% chance of having their ping poll ball come up #1. The Montreal Canadiens have the best odds with a 25.5% chance, followed by the Arizona Coyotes at 13.5%, and the Seattle Kraken with 11.5%.
The Flyers have Kraken could have flipped positions if not for former Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol blowing a 3-1 lead in the 3rd period to the Winnipeg Jets on the last day of the season.
The NHL changed the format entering the lottery this season, limiting the amount of spots a team can move up in the draft order to 10, meaning only 11 teams have a shot at the top overall pick.
Somehow under this new crazy lottery system the Flyers most likely outcome is to receive the 5th overall pick.
- Draft Lottery Odds
- Montreal Canadiens 18.5%
- Arizona Coyotes 13.5%
- Seattle Kraken 11.5%
- Philadelphia Flyers 9.5%
- New Jersey Devils 8.5%
- Chicago Blackhawks 7.5%
- Ottawa Senators 6.5%
- Detroit Red Wings 6.0%
- Buffalo Sabres 5.0%
- Anaheim Ducks 3.5%
- San Jose Sharks 3.0%
- Columbus Blue Jackets 2.5%
- New York Islanders 2.0%
- Winnipeg Jets 1.5%
- Vancouver Canucks 0.5%
- Vegas Golden Knights 0.5%
Philadelphia has selected #1 overall only once in franchise history. In 1975, when they took center Mel Bridgman, the year after the won their most recent Stanley Cup. More recently they selected Nolan Patrick with the #2 pick in 2017 and we all know how poorly that turned out..
The Flyers finished with the worst record in 2006-2007 but famously lost a coin-flip tot he Chicago Blackhawks who took Patrick Kane while the Flyers selected JVR with the second overall pick. That sequence of events in itself is worth an entire blog post!
As everyone reading this knows the Flyers were a garbage fire this season, finishing with a truly dreadful record 25-46-11. More importantly they are now without question the least popular of the big-4 sports teams in the city. The Flyers will always have their large group of die hards that make the trip to the Wells Fargo Center whether it’s 15 degrees on a January night or the team is in last place in the division.
If the Philadelphia corporate overlords, NBC Universal, didn’t notice a drastic change to their profits during the last decade of feeding fans a turd salad, they had to take notice of the sparse crowds showing up to games this season. Philadelphia was 18th in total attendance during the 2021-2022 season, averaging 16,540 fans, a sharp drop off from 2010-2020, when the Flyers routinely were in the top-5 in league attendance, averaging 19,000+ fans.
The depressing part is that Shane Wright, the player most experts believe to be the lock for the top overall selection, is by no means a slam dunk to become a superstar. The other possible prospects possess even more questions marks. The point is that no matter what happens, or what luck from the gods the Flyers receive tomorrow night, they are still way more than one player away from being relevant again in this city.
Sean Couturier, Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov, James Van Riemsdyk, Ryan Ellis, Carter Hart..
Do any of these players gives you confidence, or makes you want to shell out cash to watch them lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 five times next season?
I know I don’t care enough to consistently watch the games any longer. It’s just sad and ownership should be ashamed at what they did to a great Philadelphia institution.
The lottery will be aired on ESPN at 6pm EST live from NHL headquarters in Secaucus, NJ.
