After a season of disappointments, a positive that the Canucks take out is their position in the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery. If the history of the lottery has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

The is the second year of the new lottery system, which puts every participating team at a relative disadvantage. The middling, almost-playoff teams receive slightly greater odds at the expense of the bottom-feeders. In the previous system, the Canucks would’ve had an 18.8% chance at attaining the first-overall pick – a 6.7% increase over their chances in the new system.

Even more significant, teams could only drop one draft position. Worst-case scenario, the Canucks slide to three and miss out on Nolan Patrick, Nico Hischier, and the playmaking centre and power play defenceman they have ranked after one and two. The system is definitely flawed, as it tends to punish bad teams for being bad. It does disincentivize teams from tanking, but it’s detrimental to the naturally bad teams.

Canucks president Trevor Linden will represent the Canucks at the lottery in Toronto. Last year, he brought along a Pat Quinn rookie card as his lucky charm. Unfortunately, the luck of the Irish wasn’t cast upon the organization. This year, Linden says he’s going in empty handed. Believe it or not, he didn’t want to go in the first place.

We’re all well aware that this draft is a step down from those previous, and the margins between players are minimal. As a result, this year’s lottery won’t have as much of an impact as it could in other drafts. Don’t get me wrong, Hischier and Patrick are clearly the top two players. However, there is a big difference between hoping for Connor McDavid and landing Dylan Strome, and hoping for Nolan Patrick and getting Casey Mittelstadt. Nonetheless, it always hurts when a team goes through a poor season, only to end up taking an even larger hit by drafting lower than they should have.

The non-playoff teams go into the lottery with the following odds for each pick:

As you can see, the Canucks are most likely to end up with the fourth or fifth overall pick. Heartbreaking. Last year, Edmonton was in the same position as the Canucks are in now, and they dropped two spots. The lottery was advantageous for Winnipeg, who jumped up four spots with a 7.8% chance of receiving the second overall pick. And lastly, Toronto demonstrated that teams could also stay where they are. They remained in the first-overall position with 20% odds.

Frankly, the odds favour the Canucks moving down. Lotteries are a game of chance, and there is only one winner of the ultimate prize. Although the team has a 64.8% chance of sliding to four or five, they also have 35.2% odds of picking somewhere in the top three.

Regardless of what the lottery balls have in store for the Canucks, Jim Benning is confident that they’ll draft a real good player.

Coverage for the lottery will begin at 4:30 PM Pacific on CBC and Sportsnet, with the actual results revealed just prior to puck-drop (around 5:00 PM) for Game 2 of PIT vs. WSH. Bortz Media and Sports will be assigning the various number combinations for each team. Accounting firm Ernst & Young will be supervising the lottery to prevent any manipulation of the lottery balls and process.