Ducks can’t buck odds, remain 10th in draft lottery

The odds were not in the Ducks’ favor on Tuesday in the NHL draft lottery. They had a 3.5% chance of vaulting from 10th into the top spot for the league’s entry draft July 7-8 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Instead, they remained 10th out of the 16 teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs.

The Montreal Canadiens won the lottery, their reward for finishing 32nd and last in the overall standings. The New Jersey Devils jumped from fifth to second, the Arizona Coyotes dropped from second to third, the Philadelphia Flyers fell from fourth to fifth and the Seattle Kraken went from third to fourth.

Montreal had an 18.5% shot at the top pick, tops among the lottery teams.

The final 16 slots will be determined by the ongoing playoffs.

The Ducks have two picks in the first round and two more in the second among their eight selections in July, General Manager Pat Verbeek’s first entry draft with the club. Next year, they have one first-round selection along with three secondround picks and two in the third among their nine picks.

Verbeek was hired on Feb. 3 to replace Bob Murray, who resigned on Nov. 10.

Shane Wright, a center with the Kingston Frontenacs of the junior-level Ontario Hockey League, is the top-ranked player going into the draft. Wright had 32 goals and 62 assists in 63 regular-season games. However, this year’s draft is not considered as deep or talented as next year’s.

Although the Ducks’ luck in the past three draft lotteries was bad in one sense, it was good in another. True, they dropped one place in each of the past three lotteries, but they also went on to select players they believed could be cornerstones for their multi-season rebuilding project.

In 2019, for example, they dropped to ninth from eighth in the lottery and selected NHL Rookie of the Year candidate Trevor Zegras, a center who was their secondleading scorer this past season with 23 goals and 61 points. He set franchise rookie records with 38 assists and 61 points.

In 2020, the Ducks dropped to sixth from fifth and picked Jamie Drysdale, a smooth-skating defenseman who was their eighth-leading scorer with 32 points, including 28 assists, this season. He also was only two assists shy of topping Cam Fowler’s team rookie record of 30 assists set in 2010-11.

In 2021, they fell to third from second and nabbed Mason McTavish, a center who had two goals and an assist in nine games to start the NHL season before they returned him to the OHL. He had 20 goals and 27 assists in 29 games during the OHL’s regular season.

The Ducks have never picked higher than second since beginning play in the NHL in 1993-94. Bobby Ryan remains their most recent No. 2 pick, in 2005, one spot behind Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby. Ryan went on to set Ducks rookie records for goals with 31 and points with 57 in 2008-09.

Generational talents such as Paul Kariya (fourth overall in 1993), Ryan Getzlaf (19th in 2003) and Corey Perry (28th in ’03) were selected a bit farther down the line, a nod to the Ducks’ standout scouting and development of their young players throughout the franchise’s history.