It’s been a turbulent season for the Calgary Flames, and finally, their quest for the playoffs has officially come to an end.
With their loss to the Winnipeg Jets on the night of April 4, 2024, the Flames are now mathematically unable to jump over the teams ahead of them in the standings and into the second wild card spot in the West. They’ll play out the remaining seven games of the 2023-24 regular season without playoff aspirations.
The Flames will participate in the 2024 draft lottery
The good news is that with their playoff elimination, the Flames have guaranteed themselves participation in the 2024 draft lottery.
This year, there will be two rounds of the lottery, with the winning teams earning the first and second overall draft spots in the upcoming draft.
Despite not having a true generational talent at the top of the order like last year, Macklin Celebrini and Ivan Demidov appear to be locks for the top two selections, and both project to be elite NHL forwards. The top of the draft is going to produce some true stars, and the Flames will be in the running to get one.
Lottery winners will be getting a huge boost to their future this season.
Draft lottery odds
As has been the case for quite some time, draft lottery odds are determined by reverse overall standings.
| Standings Position | Draft Lottery Odds |
|---|---|
| 32 | 18.5% |
| 31 | 13.5% |
| 30 | 11.5% |
| 29 | 9.5% |
| 28 | 8.5% |
| 27 | 7.5% |
| 26 | 6.5% |
| 25 | 6.0% |
| 24 | 5.0% |
| 23 | 3.5% |
| 22 | 3.0% |
| 21 | 2.5% |
| 20 | 2.0% |
| 19 | 1.5% |
| 18 | 0.5% |
| 17 | 0.5% |
At the present moment, the Flames sit in 25th place overall, which translates to the eight best lottery odds of 6.0%.
Realistically, the worst they can finish overall is 28th, which would give them the fifth best lottery odds of 8.5%.
As well, there is a rule that only allows lottery winners to move up a maximum of 10 slots in the draft order. Therefore, any team that is at 21st overall or better do not have the opportunity to select first overall in the draft.
The future is near
For the Flames, it’s time to focus on the future. The last eight games of the season need to be purely focused on giving this team the best opportunity to succeed in next season and beyond. This means prioritizing giving younger players opportunity, experimenting with line combinations and defense pairings to determine what you have going forward, and spending every moment preparing for the upcoming draft.
Interesting ideas they could try are moving Connor Zary to center, recalling Jeremie Poirier to see how he fares against NHL competition, giving Dustin Wolf the starters net for the balance of the season, and allowing veteran players who are battling nagging injuries more time to heal and recover.
Ideally, the Flames lose every game the rest of the way to give them the best opportunity to select the best player in the 2024 draft.
It’s not all bad news. The priority now just shifts to the draft, officially.
