May 20, 2021 / 219 Comments / Sports

The Calgary Flames have finished their 2020-21 season and will be part of the upcoming 2021 NHL Draft lottery. The league has announced lottery odds and the Flames have the 13th-best chance at first overall.

Well, sort of…

2021 #NHLDraft Lottery Set for Wednesday, June 2. https://t.co/v4mbk08Ym1 pic.twitter.com/BPQNJpxbLl

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 19, 2021

There are two things you need to know about the draft lottery:

There are draws for the first and second overall picks, and any lottery team can win them this season. (Starting in 2022, a lottery team can move up at most 10 spots.)
The exception to “everyone gets a chance” is Arizona, who forfeited their pick as punishment for some prospect fitness testing rule violations a couple years ago. If Arizona wins either draw, they’ll simply re-draw that pick.

So with and without Arizona, here’s how the odds shake out.

Seed
Team
Odds w/ ARI
Odds w/o ARI
1
Buffalo
16.6%
17.1%
2
Anaheim
12.1%
12.5%
3
Seattle
10.3%
10.6%
4
New Jersey
10.3%
10.6%
5
Columbus
8.5%
8.8%
6
Detroit
7.6%
7.8%
7
San Jose
6.7%
6.9%
8
Los Angeles
5.8%
6.0%
9
Vancouver
5.4%
5.6%
10
Ottawa
4.5%
4.6%
11
Arizona
3.1%
0.0%
12
Chicago
2.7%
2.8%
13
FLAMES
2.2%
2.3%
14
Philadelphia
1.8%
1.9%
15
Dallas
1.4%
1.4%
16
NY Rangers
1.0%
1.0%

The Flames have never, ever won a lottery. They’ve drafted fourth overall once (in 2014) and otherwise haven’t selected in the top five of the NHL Draft.

The 2021 NHL Draft lottery takes place Wed., June 2, presumably as part of the NHL’s coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

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