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Flames fans react to moving back two spots in the NHL’s draft lottery
Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
The Calgary Flames will select sixth overall in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft at the end of June.
In the grand scheme of things, sixth overall is pretty good; only five teams will pick ahead of them, and they’re still picking earlier than 26 other first-round spots.
But the Flames finished tied for third-last in the National Hockey League in points with the New York Rangers, and had the fourth-best odds at the top pick heading into Tuesday night’s 2026 draft lottery. Toronto won the first draw, moving from fifth to first. San Jose won the second draw, moving from ninth to second. And the Flames were pushed back, twice, moving from fourth to sixth.
So while drafting early is undoubtedly a positive, and will help continue progress in general manager Craig Conroy’s youth movement, you can understand some disappointment and frustration on the part of the fanbase regarding how the draft lottery panned out.
Here’s a snapshot of how Flames fans felt about things in the hours after the draft lottery drawing.
A series of emotive GIFs
A picture says a thousand words, and many of our respondents expressed their feelings via moving pictures.
Playing the hits
A couple respondents leaned on classic memes to share their disappointment.
Expected the drop but still sucks
Some frustration
We’ll level with you: the replies we saw – both to our tweet announcing the lottery results and the “Hey, how’re you feeling?” query to the fans – got overwhelmingly frustrated and negative replies. In short: everyone’s feeling quiet disappointed, frustrated and otherwise in their feelings right now.
Here’s a brief selection of what we saw.
What a joke , even if it wasn’t rigged the league will never escape the optics
Absolutely fucking disgusted. 1 top 5 draft pick in 56 years.
That this lottery system is a joke.
Miserable. Worst case scenario. Pacific powerhouse gets better. And leafs get mckenna. And we drop to 6. Pretty sad
It's ridiculous these draft lotteries. Leafs have been a top team since drafting Matthews have one bad season amd poof another 1st. Sharks have had a 1st, 2x 2nd and a 4th in 4 seasons. Flames since coming to Calgary in 1980 have never drafted higher than 4th. Brutal.
Okay, a lot of frustration
There were a lot of frustrated, angry replies.
Personally I am just really happy that a team that really deserves and needs the first round pick actually got it. Finally Toronto catches a break.
If the Flames had won one more game, they would have won the lottery.
We're going to suck forever
Worst season in a long time and mushy middle for another generation.
Some optimism?
We did see some folks looking at the upside, but most of the silver linings crowd were acknowledging the gigantic rain cloud over top of them.
I feel like Puking, two of 3 teams I didn’t not want to see move up did. The 3rd team I didn’t want to see move up was Florida. The only good thing is at least this year the top 8 players are all very good.
We need to be aggressive in trading up, we have so much ammo and there’s no reason to try and trade up.
If we can draft Malhotra or Lawrence. I'm good 🤣
Carels or Viggo is okay.
It’s a solid day for Don Maloney and his fantasy hockey comments. I’m not a conspiracy guy but when the biggest team in the sport is in the middle of a media shit storm and get handed the ultimate PR bail out it’s seens that Don and Co. Knew what we didn’t. It’s fantasy hockey.
But once I look past the lottery , I’m excited to see what Conny this scouting staff can do with 6 top 50 picks. We’ve had top five draft the last two years and haven’t had a pick better than 9th
And finally…
How do you feel about the draft lottery results? Who do you want the Flames to select at sixth overall? Let us know in the comments!
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Calgary FlamesTeam Cap Summary
Cap Summary
2026-27
2027-28
Projected Cap Hit
$89,116,666
$70,041,666
Projected Cap Space
$14,883,334
$43,458,334
Current Cap Space
$14,883,334
$43,458,334
Active Players
23/23
16/23
Draft Picks
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'26
'27
1
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1
2
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2
3
1
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