Team gets 10th pick; Devils at No. 1 overall

The Florida Panthers certainly had their share of bad luck during a disastrous season in which they were crippled by injuries to key players and hurt by bad bounces of the puck.

Even the pingpong balls didn’t cooperate in Saturday night’s NHL Draft Lottery show, in which the ninthseeded Panthers had a 5.4 percent of landing the No. 1 pick in the NHL Entry Draft on June 23 at Chicago’s United Center.

The Panthers, who also had a 5.7 percent chance of getting the second pick and 6 percent odds of landing the third selection, dropped to 10th.

By finishing 35-36-11, the Panthers were one of 15 teams in the draft lottery — 14 teams that didn’t make the playoffs, as well as the incoming Las Vegas Golden Knights expansion team.

The Panthers have selected 10th three times in franchise history, with all three picks enjoying solid, if not sterling, NHL careers. They drafted forward Radek Dvorak at 10 in 1995; forward Michael Frolik in 2006 and defenseman Keaton Ellerby in 2007.

The Panthers were hoping to have a shot at Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL) center Nolan Patrick, Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL) Swiss center Nico Hischier or Windsor (OHL) center Gabriel Vilardi, the projected top three draft picks by NHL Central Scouting.

None of the top three are thought to be generational impact players such as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid or Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, respectively the top picks of the last three drafts.

The fifth-seeded New Jersey Devils had an 8.5 percent chance to win the lottery, and they did. The Flyers made the biggest jump, going from the 13th spot to No. 2; the eighth-seeded Stars landed the second pick.

The Panthers also have a second-round pick (40th overall), third round (65th) and fifth round (133rd).

NHL bottom-dwellers Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver had a 17.9 percent and 12.1 percent chance respectively to get the top pick. They ended up with the fourth and fifth picks respectivley.

The Knights and their new coach Gerard Gallant, who was fired by the Panthers last November, had the same odds (10.3 percent) to win the top pick as the team that finished with the third-worst regular-season record, the Arizona Coyotes. The Knights were guaranteed to leave with no lower than the sixth overall selection, and that’s what they got.

“That’s the No. 1 priority right now, to hire the right coach,” Tallon said on a radio interview on WQAM earlier this week. “We’re looking for a modern-day guy, a good communicator and a good teacher. Someone who’s firm but fair and can think outside the box a little bit, because creativity is important too as far as how you differentiate yourself from other teams playing a similar system.” Aleksander Barkov Jonathan Huberdeau,” Tallon said. “If it makes sense for both of us, we’ll probably do something.”