The Calgary Flames have never moved up in a draft lottery
By Ryan Pike
in 11 minutesThe National Hockey League introduced the draft lottery in 1995. Since the lottery system began, the Flames have participated in 16 lotteries of the 29 that have been held so far. There have been 19 separate draws with the Flames as a participant to determine draft order – and that’s not counting the 25 drawings the Flames were involved in during the 2005 post-lockout lottery before finally getting their draft slot.
And they haven’t won a single one.
Here’s a quick high-level rundown of the Flames history at the draft lottery, sorted by their odds in each year to win the lottery draw:
| Odds | Year | Result |
| 10.7% | 2014 | Remained at 4th overall (drafted Sam Bennett) |
| 8.5% | 2016 | Dropped from 5th to 6th overall (drafted Matthew Tkachuk) |
| 6.2% | 2013 | Remained at 6th overall (drafted Sean Monahan) |
| 5.9% | 1997 | Remained at 6th overall (drafted Daniel Tkaczuk) |
| 5.7% | 1998 | Remained at 6th overall (drafted Rico Fata) |
| 4.2% | 2005 | After the 2004-05 lockout, weighed draws were held to determine the entire first round draft order (which then snaked for subsequent rounds). The Flames selected 26th overall, meaning they didn’t win the first 25 draws – their odds in the 26th draw escalated up to 35.6%. Drafted Matt Pelech. |
| 2.7% | 1999 2000 2002 2003 | Remained at 9th overall (traded down to 11th; drafted Oleg Saprykin) Remained at 9th overall (drafted Brent Krahn) Remained at 9th overall (traded down to 10th; drafted Eric Nystrom) Remained at 9th overall (drafted Dion Phaneuf) |
| 2.5% | 2018 | Remained at 12th overall (traded to NY Islanders) |
| 2.1% | 2021 | Remained at 13th overall (drafted Matt Coronato) |
| 1.5% | 2001 | Remained at 11th overall (traded down to 14th; drafted Chuck Kobasew) |
| 0.8% | 2010 2011 | Remained at 13th overall (traded to Phoenix) Remained at 13th overall (drafted Sven Baertschi) |
| 0.5% | 2012 2023 | Remained at 14th overall (traded down to 21st; drafted Mark Jankowski) Remained at 16th overall (drafted Samuel Honzek) |
When you look back at the Flames’ lottery history as a whole, they’ve never moved up from where their draft positioning was pre-lottery. They’ve moved down once, dropping down a spot in 2016 but ending up with Matthew Tkachuk anyway. And in the remaining lotteries, they simply stayed in their pre-lottery positioning.
We’ll see if they luck finally turns on Tuesday evening at the 2024 edition of the draft lottery.
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