Saturday’s NHL Draft Lottery was the craziest in league history.
The No. 1 pick went to the New Jersey Devils, the No. 2 pick went to the Philadelphia Flyers, and the No. 3 pick went to the Dallas Stars.
The Devils had an 8.5% chance of receiving the first pick, the Flyers had a 2.4% chance of receiving the second pick, and the Stars had a 6.4 % chance of getting the third pick.
So, those organizations are certainly ecstatic with how things unfolded. One organization that is not happy, is the Colorado Avalanche.
The Avalanche were a disaster this season, recording the lowest amount of points (48) since the Atlanta Thrashers (39) did in 1999-2000 as an expansion franchise. But that record did allow them to get the highest chance for the No. 1 pick, at 18.0%, and gave them a 48.1% chance at a top-three pick.
Welp, they got the fourth pick, the lowest possible pick they could’ve gotten. And the Avs’ Twitter account didn’t hold back in showing their frustration:
Yeah, the fourth pick isn’t exactly going to get the Colorado fan base pumped up after what was by far the worst team in the NHL this season. This is also a lesson in why tanking can be hard to make work effectively when there’s a lottery system.