The Philadelphia Flyers have been in the NHL Draft Lottery almost routinely since the 2016 version, missing the cut (or not being a cellar dweller) in the pandemic-influenced season (2020 lottery) and the aforementioned 2016 lottery. But given just how competitive the team was in the ’90s and most of the ’00s, the lottery balls were not in the realm of possibility. The Flyers were just too damn good for their own good.
So with the excitement building over knowing the Flyers could move up or at worst end up in the top sixth, let’s look back at the various lotteries situations Philadelphia found themselves in, whether they moved up or down, and whether the picks in those lotteries panned out.