No, you’re not misreading that headline.

And this isn’t some “we should hope good things happen to other teams” type thing, either.

While every Vancouver Canucks fan will undoubtedly be hoping that the lottery balls fall in their favour and that one of the Canucks’ 188 four-ball combinations is drawn, there are actually five other teams that Canucks fans should be rooting for just as much.

Allow us to explain.

Like last season, the two live drawings will be conducted on a live broadcast from the NHL Network’s studios in New Jersey. Gone are the days of Bill Daly coming out and flipping (definitely not rigged) cards with each team’s logo while intense music plays in the background. Gone too are the days of the lottery results getting leaked on social media (remember how much that sucked?).

Tuesday’s lottery, which kicks off at 4 PM Pacific, will feature two drawings. The first will be for the first overall pick, which most people agree will be used to draft Yukon-born Penn State winger Gavin McKenna regardless of who wins the pick. The second will be used, most likely, to draft Ivar Stenberg. For this article, our focus is going to be on that first drawing, the one that could see the Canucks land the coveted first overall pick.

As we covered on Monday, the Canucks have 188 off the 1,000 combinations that will see them win the lottery and thus, the first overall pick.

But one of the things that went a bit under the radar in that piece was when we explained that, because of the NHL’s new lottery rules that ensure the teams who finished in the bottom 12-16 spots in the NHL standings can’t win the first overall pick, the Canucks have an even higher probability than 188 out of 1,000 to land the first overall pick. That’s right, the Canucks don’t even have to win the lottery drawing for the first overall pick to receive the first overall pick in this year’s draft.

If one of the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues, or Washington Capitals win the first lottery drawing, the Canucks automatically win the first overall pick, because none of those teams are allowed to move up further than ten spots.

Here’s an example. If the Islanders — the bottom five team with the second-highest odds to win the drawing at 2.5% — won the first lottery drawing, they would move up ten spots to third overall. This would lock the Canucks into first overall and the Islanders into third overall, and the remaining teams would be entered into the second lottery drawing to see who gets the second overall pick.

If the Devils win the first drawing, they’re guaranteed the second overall pick, Vancouver would get locked in at number one, and the second drawing would actually be for the third overall pick, not the second one. A bit confusing, I know.

Let’s keep it simple. When you watch the first four balls being drawn for the first of two lottery drawings tonight, you are hoping to see the Canucks, Devils, Islanders, Blue Jackets, Red Wings, or Capitals win it.

Here are each of those teams’ odds at winning the first lottery drawing:

Canucks: 18.5% (odds at first overall are actually 25.5% because of what we’ve just explained)
Devils: 2.5%
Islanders: 2.0%
Columbus: 1.5%
Detroit: 0.5%
Washington: 0.5%

We dove into the exact lottery ball combinations that the Canucks need to land the first overall pick, and you can read that below!

Come watch our Draft Lottery watchalong livestream over on the CanucksArmy YouTube channel, and if you’re in the area, come watch the taping of it LIVE at Greta Bar YVR! More info below.