The Vancouver Canucks are putting together one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
They currently sit dead-last in the NHL by a wide margin, posting a league-worst 17-30-5 record and .375 points percentage through 52 games. That gives them an eight-point cushion on 32nd place.
You have to go back to 1998-99, smack dab in the middle of the Mark Messier era, to find a Canucks team with a worse points percentage (.354). If this continues, the Canucks will post the franchise’s worst points percentage since the league began awarding points for OT losses in the 1999-2000 season.
But there is one benefit to all this losing: the draft.
If the Canucks continue to tank their way through the final 30 games of the season, they’ll have the best odds of securing the first overall pick. That should excite a fan base that has never seen the Canucks draft first overall in the 56-year history of the club, but it doesn’t mean they’re a shoo-in to get it.
The last-place team will have just a 27.1 per cent chance to land the first overall pick and a 19.8 per cent chance at picking second.
Because the first two picks are the only two selections awarded via the lottery, the maximum number of spots the 32nd team can fall is two. That makes the odds of picking third overall 53.1 per cent.
Draft lottery odds heading into Monday’s games (Tankathon.com)
So if the Canucks finish last, it doesn’t guarantee the first pick, but it does guarantee picking no worse than third.
It would be Canuck luck to see them finish last and still fall two spots in the draft, but this year, that should be a spot where they can find a blue-chip prospect.
The 2026 draft is supposed to be a good one, albeit without a slam-dunk No. 1 prospect like we’ve seen in recent years with Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard.
Penn State winger Gavin McKenna is currently the No. 1 prospect on Elite Prospects’ consolidated ranking, followed by University of North Dakota defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg, and Boston University centre Tynan Lawrence.
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