The National Hockey League held their annual draft lottery on Monday evening, as the league set the first round draft order for the 16 teams that missed out on qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs. For the first time ever, the lottery was a live television event.

The Calgary Flames entered the draft lottery with a 1.1% chance of moving up via a 0.5% chance in each of the two lottery draws. These odds were represented by five winning combinations of drawn numbers out of 1,000 possible combinations.

The five winning Flames combinations were:

• 1, 5, 9 and 12
• 4, 5, 8 and 11
• 5, 12, 13 and 14
• 9, 10, 11 and 13
• 9, 10, 12 and 13

The Flames didn’t win either draw. The New York Islanders won the first draw and moved from 10th overall to 1st overall. The Utah Hockey Club won the second draw and moved from 14th overall to 4th overall.

But the Flames nearly won the second draw.

The first draw

The four numbers drawn to determine which team received 1st overall, in order, were 7, 11, 12 and 13.

None of the five Flames winning combinations contained a 7, so the Flames were out right away – they were actually the only team eliminated on that first ping pong ball.

The Islanders, with a 3.5% chance, won the draw and moved up to 1st overall.

The second draw

The four numbers drawn to determine which team received 2nd overall, in order, were 1, 5, 12 and 3.

The Flames had a winning combination that included 1, 5 and 12. Had the fourth ball drawn been 9, the Flames would have won the drawing and moved up the maximum of 10 spots – from 16th overall to 6th overall.

Instead, 3 was the final number selected and Utah (with a 1.6% chance) won instead, moving up the maximum of 10 spots from 14th overall to 4th overall.

The aftermath

As a result of the two lottery draws, the Flames were allocated the 16th overall selection in the 2025 NHL Draft – the exact same pick they had before the lottery. As a result of the absurdly complex conditions from the August 2022 trade that sent Sean Monahan to the Montreal Canadiens for future considerations, the 16th overall selection was transferred from the Flames to the Canadiens.

The Flames no longer have any draft choices that are encumbered by any potential trade conditions.

The Flames still have two picks in the first round of this year’s draft: New Jersey’s pick (18th overall, from the Jacob Markstrom trade) and Florida’s pick (somewhere between 22nd and 32nd overall, pending playoff results, from the Matthew Tkachuk trade).

The 2025 NHL Draft takes place June 27 & 28 from Los Angeles, CA.