It’s pretty clear that without Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine in their lineup, the Winnipeg Jets have a far better chance of landing the first pick and Alexis Lafreniere in the draft than they do of winning their qualifying round series against the Calgary Flames. Should the Jets lose the series, their chances of winning the draft lottery are one-in-eight. Without two players who combined for 57 goals and 136 points, their chances of winning this series are about one-in-a million.
So you’re saying there’s a chance? Well, truth be told, if there’s a chance that superpest Matthew Tkachuk went into what looked like an innocuous collision with Scheifele in the first period of the Flames’ 4-1 win over Winnipeg with the intention of trying to slice the back of Scheifele’s leg open, then anything is possible.