Dallas Stars Have Long Odds In 2018 NHL Draft Lottery

With the 2017-18 NHL regular season officially over, it’s time to look towards the draft. The 2018 NHL Draft Lottery odds were officially released yesterday. And for the Dallas Stars, it’s obvious that things aren’t looking entirely promising.

On Saturday night, the Dallas Stars closed out their 2017-18 regular season. And on Sunday night, the NHL closed out the entire regular season campaign.

And now, here we are. 16 teams are headed for the Stanley Cup Playoffs while the other 15 embark on an extended offseason to try and fix whatever went wrong. The Dallas Stars, unfortunately, are in the minority group.

After putting together four solid months of play, the Stars imploded in the month of March. They turned in a record of 4-8-4, which included an eight-game losing skid, and fell from third in the division to outside the race entirely. When it was all said and done, they couldn’t find a way to claw themselves back into the fight.

They are now entering their eighth long offseason of the last ten years and once again need answers. Nothing seems to be working, and that’s a problem for a team with so much talent throughout the roster.

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Enter the 2018 NHL Draft Lottery. It’s the only thing that the fans of those 15 organizations have to get excited about between now and June while the other teams compete in the postseason sprint. And for the Dallas Stars, they already have a pretty good track record with this kind of thing.

Last season, the Stars went off a metaphorical cliff. They posted 30 less points from the season before when they won the Central Division and missed the playoffs by 15. Their offense was lacking, the defense was inevitably bad, and neither goaltender could string together consistently strong starts. The team was simply in shambles and begging for release by game 70 or so.

But it kind of paid off in the first month of the offseason. At the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery, the Dallas Stars received the third overall pick. Though their odds weren’t the best, they still had a decent shot and pulled off one of the top three choices in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. They ended up spending it on Miro Heiskanen, an 18-year-old that is considered to be the best defenseman in the draft class and the future for the Dallas blue line.

And this year, they are going to get another shot at landing a top three spot. But don’t be surprised if the odds aren’t entirely in their favor this time around.

The Dallas Stars will roll into the lottery with a 6.6 percent chance of landing a top-three pick. In addition to that, they have a 2.0 percent chance of snagging the top spot overall. It seems as though anything is possible when you consider that the Colorado Avalanche, who had a historically bad season in 2016-17, ended up missing out on a top three pick. But this year is different, especially for the Stars.

Instead of missing the postseason by 15 points like last year, they missed it by three points. The Stars were the third team out and if they don’t land a top three pick via the lottery, they will pick 13th, 14th, or 15th based on end-of-season rank.

Those aren’t terrific odds to go on, but at least they aren’t the longest. That’s reserved for Philadelphia (first round pick from St. Louis) and Florida. But still, it’s nothing for them to truly hang their hat on. If you’re looking for good odds, go with Buffalo (who has the best odds at 49.4 percent chance of getting a top three and 18.5 percent at landing no. 1 overall).

Next: Stars Once Again End Season On Hopeful Note

The 2018 Draft Lottery will take place on April 28. Until then, keep playing with the draft lottery simulator. Maybe the Stars will come up in first at some point.

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