By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor
The NHL Draft Lottery was held on Wednesday night, and the odds were certainly stacked against the Flyers when it came to moving up to the top two spots.
The results of the lottery were revealed, and the Flyers will have the 13th overall pick at the NHL Draft, set to begin on July 23 and run through July 24. The Flyers entered the lottery with a 91.3 percent chance of retaining the 14th spot in the Draft, easily making it the most likely outcome. By virtue of the Arizona Coyotes forfeiting their first-round pick, the Flyers selection moves up one spot to 13th overall.
This is the first time the Flyers will select at the 13th overall spot in the draft.
The Buffalo Sabres won the lottery, entering the night with the best odds to do so. The Seattle Kraken, entering their first NHL Draft in franchise history, will have the second overall pick, moving up from the third-best odds. The Anaheim Ducks, who had the second-best odds for the first overall pick, will select third overall. The rest of the non-playoff teams round out the draft order in reverse order.
Recent 13th overall picks include Seth Jarvis (Carolina, 2020), Spencer Knight (Florida, 2019), Ty Dellandrea (Dallas, 2018), Nick Suzuki (Vegas, 2017), Jake Bean (Carolina, 2016), Jakub Vrana (Washington, 2014), Josh Morrissey (Winnipeg, 2013), and Dustin Brown (Los Angeles, 2003).