While many teams are fighting for playoff spots and different positions in the standings, but another group of teams and fan bases are fighting for something else entirely: Rasmus Dahlin.
An underrated part of following sports is the excitement of a rebuild. Obviously it seems like it’s something few people can get behind, but it can be exciting to watch a young team develop and a huge part of that can be the draft lottery. Obviously there are no guarantees even if a team finishes last, but increasing your odds at a talent like Dahlin can always speed up a rebuild.
Two teams got closer to securing the best odds at winning the 2018 NHL draft lottery last night and were officially eliminated from the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Arizona Coyotes and the Vancouver Canucks.
Realistically, both of the teams have been out of playoff contention for a while, but as one Reddit user pointed out recently, there were still some absurd scenarios in which they could make the playoffs. Not anymore. We’re not sure either of them are too upset with that, because they need to keep dropping in the standings if they want to fall below Buffalo for the worst record in the NHL. It’s an odd situation, but that the team in last place wasn’t actually eliminated first, but the Western Conference has just been a little more competitive this season.
On the other thing, Canucks fans can also revel in the fact that their team’s loss actually hurt the Calgary Flames’ chances of getting into the playoffs as well. The Canucks lost to Anaheim who the Flames will still have to pass if they still hope to make this year’s post season.
