Back in the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, sportscaster Al Michaels once famously blurted: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”
That came out when the United States was on its way to an improbable gold medal in ice hockey.
Well, the Flyers already experienced a miracle of their own back in 2017 when the luck of the NHL Draft Lottery draw moved them all the way up from No. 13 to No. 2 in the official draft that year.
As for their selection that year, Nolan Patrick, we’ll save that discussion for another day.
Anyway, the Flyers were slotted in the No. 12 spot in Tuesday night’s 2024 NHL Draft Lottery and it would have been asking a lot to have them repeat that 2017 unlikely outcome.
They only had a 2.5-percent chance of changing destiny and the dice for the NHL Draft next month in Las Vegas didn’t roll their way. They stayed right in the No. 12 spot.
Overall, the No. 1 pick followed form as the league-worst San Jose Sharks (47 points) wound up with the No. 1 pick and Chicago (51 points) placed second. There were no changes in the selections at the lottery, the first time that’s happened since 2010.
It’s almost a given the Sharks will select forward Macklin Celebrini, who played a year for the Sharks’ junior team in the Bay Area. The Vancouver native is said to be a lock for the overall top selection.
