Montreal Canadiens: The draft lottery race is getting interesting
Teams who have been in the bottom five all season are gearing up for the final stretch of the year, and the Montreal Canadiens are one of them.
The regular season is almost at its end now that April has hit. Most teams, including the Montreal Canadiens, will wrap up on Saturday, while the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers face each other on the following Sunday night.
If you’re a team that finished in the top 16, congratulations, you’re in the playoffs. If you were right on the cusp of the post-season bubble, you must feel really frustrated. It’s a different feeling if you’re in the bottom ten. Obviously, no one wants to be there, but finishing so low presents the opportunity to get the top prize in the following draft. I am talking of course, about the draft lottery.
That’s been one of the main things to track if you were all in on the Montreal Canadiens tanking the rest of the season. The Habs have found themselves sixth last for some time now, but things happening around the league, as well as their own performances, have changed that. Which makes the latest update in the draft lottery race so interesting.
The Habs are currently 28th in the NHL with 68 points. If the season were to end right now, they would have a 28.8% chance to select anywhere in the top three and a 9.5% chance to win the opportunity to draft first overall. The Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings have helped by winning their last four and three respectively. The Arizona Coyotes are partly responsible as well seeing as how they’ve won more games lately.
This final week could be make or break for the team who ends up winning the lottery. Detroit, Vancouver, Montreal, and Arizona all have three games left while Buffalo and Ottawa have four. All six teams are close enough where winning some or all of those matches could drastically impact the final outlook of the standings.
We’ll have to wait and see how the rest of the season plays out. A team could play themselves out of a draft lottery win, or in one if the NHL has anything to say about it. The league has been trying their hardest to get tanking out of the game, and you can bet they were happy with last year’s results.
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That’s the beauty of a lottery, you can never be sure who is going to win. It may not be about cheering for losses, and if the Montreal Canadiens do lose their final three games, it would be better to see a full performance out of them. On the other hand, the Habs haven’t drafted first overall since 1980 taking Doug Wickenheiser.