Lottery: a clearer picture of the Canadiens

The club isn’t officially eliminated for the playoffs with its 68 points in 72 games, but everyone knows the club is out of the running – and has been for a while. After all, even the Flames, who have a three-point lead over the Habs with 10 games to play, shouldn’t be caught.

The Sabres or the Kraken certainly won’t.

Down to the bottom? The Coyotes are one point behind the Habs, who have a game in hand on André Tourigny’s men. But otherwise, Pascal Vincent’s Blue Jackets are too low at 58 points.

Anaheim, Chicago and (especially) San Jose are in a class of their own.

What this means is that, logically, the Habs could move up a spot or down a spot (or two?) at most for the lottery. At present, the Habs are in sixth place.

The Canadiens should therefore have between 6% and 8.5% of winning the lottery, which will surely take place in early May. A top-7 pick makes a lot of sense under the circumstances.

The Canadiens have the seventh-toughest schedule in the NHL between now and the end of the season. The Senators (2) and Coyotes (9) are also in the top-10.

All this means that the Habs probably won’t be lucky enough to get their hands on Macklin Celebrini (unless they win the lottery, of course), but that good players will still be at the GM’s disposal.

Right now, a (left-handed) defenseman is projected as the Habs’ choice on Tankathon. That said, it’s simply because the prospects are ranked from best to worst, regardless of the formations at the time of writing.

But in reality, the chances of the Habs opting for a forward are good. We’ll see in due course, at least.

In gusto

– The file is progressing.

– He’s having a great season.

– What do you think?

– Whew.