If the NHL season ended today, the league-worst Avalanche would have have a 20 percent chance at selecting center Nolan Patrick with the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NHL draft and would be guaranteed to pick no worse than No. 2.
Patrick, the captain of major-junior’s Brandon Wheat Kings in Manitoba, Canada, is deemed the top draft-eligible player in June by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau, which released its mid-season rankings Wednesday. The team with the fewest points has the highest chance to win the draft lottery and Colorado has a league-low 27 points, five fewer than Arizona.