I never play the lottery. Why? I feel like I work hard enough for my money than to throw it away in a game where the odds are better that I get struck by lightning than winning myself. My partner in crime bought a ticket for the $640 million Mega Millions Jackpot two weeks ago, but she wasn’t planning on quitting her job anytime soon. Lottery picks are a complete shot in the dark and in comparison to something like the Mega Millions, the NHL draft odds are outstanding. If you were the Columbus Blue Jackets your odds were just over 48%. You had to be feeling pretty good going into it. The winning prize is the opportunity to move up 4 spots in the draft. What could that mean? It could be the difference between drafting a future superstar and just a good to average player. Especially when you consider the draft is said to be kind of weak compared to more recent drafts. Winning could be huge. Yet you still have to make the right picks.
Did Columbus fail for Nail?
Many Wild fans were annoyed as they began to won meaningless games late in the season, compromising their possible chance to win the lottery and land the coveted 1st Overall selection and a shot at the concensus top pick in Sarnia’s Nail Yakupov. Afterall there was the fun catchphrase “Fail for Nail”, but the Wild wouldn’t fail enough. By the time the season had concluded the best the Wild could hope for was a 3rd Overall pick if they won the lottery. The Wild had just 4.7% chance of winning, far better than the chance than that Mega Millions ticket but hardly a sure thing either. So would the Wild be the big winner at the lottery?
NOPE!
The Wild did not win the lottery, but in this game you only miss out on winning and you’re not out a variable sum of cash. The Wild will pick 7th Overall barring any trade. If you watched the Draft Lottery on NBC’s Sports Network / TSN you heard the speculation of who the Wild would take. The player former General Manager Craig Button believes will be selected by the Wild will be Edmonton Oil Kings’ defenseman Griffin Reinhart. The 6’4″, 202lbs defenseman is a player who plays with an edge near the crease which is something the Wild has never really had. Reinhart, the son of former NHL’er Paul Reinhart, Griffin has 12 goals, 36 points, +23 and 38 penalty minutes this season with the Oil Kings. As the Oil Kings battle their way through the WHL playoffs, Reinhart has a goal, 3 points is a +6 and 10 penalty minutes.
Edmonton Oil Kings’ Griffin Reinhart
Yet the interesting part about the draft lottery is that its not a ticket to sure-fire success. In 2005, the Wild did fairly well in the league draft lottery to earn the 4th Overall pick. They selected Benoit Pouliot just 3 selections behind Sidney Crosby. Pouliot has managed to grind out an ok career, but not what the team was hoping for. The team dealt the enigmatic Pouliot to the Montreal Canadiens for Guillaume Latendresse. Latendresse excelled in his first season with the Wild, but two injury plagued seasons later likely means his time with Minnesota is over.
In the draft, there are no guarantees. The only guarantee of drafting 1st overall is that you get to pick from everyone that is available. The Wild have felt the sting of failure in the 1st round. Its why you have blog sites like FirstRoundBust.com had plenty of material to work with. Busts like A.J. Thelen, Benoit Pouliot, James Sheppard, and Colton Gillies set Minnesota back years. So even if you’re drafting 7th Overall (which isn’t that bad actually) you have to make the most of it. Lately, the Wild have been getting lots of kudos league-wide for their improvements at the draft. Most notably from the Hockey News that stated the Wild have 6 players amongst the top 75 prospects in the league; and 5 in the Top 40. In fact, news on the Wild prospects just got a little brighter as news of 2nd round pick (56th Overall) was named Swedish Elite League Rookie of the Year after scoring 12 goals, 36 points in 49 games. Not too bad for a 19-year old playing in a league against men.
So what about Columbus and its just over 48% chance of getting the 1st Overall pick? After a horrible debacle of a season; where they fired their coach Scott Arniel and replaced him with Todd Richards, trading away a very unhappy Jeff Carter after they made a big move to get him last summer, and the news that their star player Rick Nash asking for a trade at the deadline means the Hockey Gods should have made up that bad year with a dash of good luck in the lottery right?
Wrong! 
The Edmonton Oilers got lucky a 3rd time in a row and will be picking 1st Overall. So the Columbus Blue Jackets literally failed to get Nail! By the way, how in the heck does GM Scott Howson still have a job? And in honor of their failure I have this clip.
Here is how the top 14 picks will work themselves out.
1. Edmonton Oilers
2. Columbus Blue Jackets
3. Montreal Canadiens
4. New York Islanders
5. Toronto Maple Leafs
6. Anaheim Ducks
7. MINNESOTA WILD
8. Carolina Hurricanes
9. Winnipeg Jets
10. Tampa Bay Lightning
11. Washington Capitals
12. Buffalo Sabres
13. Dallas Stars
14. Calgary Flames
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