ERIE, PA.

Finally, thankfully, mercifully, the time has come for Connor McDavid to find out where his new hockey home will be.

When the sure-to-be ecstatic winner of the 2015 NHL draft lottery is determined shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. it will leave behind:

a) months, even years, of speculation of where the gifted centre might end up.

b) countless accusations of tanking against teams like the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes who spent the final months of the regular season jockeying for that suddenly-coveted 30th-place position in the overall standings.

c) an endless assembly line of finger nails chewed down to the nubs by the respective fanbases of the league’s lower echelon teams, loyal supporters who have been drooling over the prospect of landing a so-called generational franchise player like a McDavid or a Jack Eichel.

Now. all that lottery lunacy is on the cusp of coming to an end.

No more Tank-a-paloozas.

No more McDavid sweepstakes.

And as for all those McEichel Bowls, there were so many of those by the end of the season, we lost count.

Ironically, through all the hype and hysteria surrounding him, the one person who has maintained his cool and kept his feet planted firmly on the ground is McDavid himself.

Dealing with the omnipresent publicity and attention with the maturity of someone twice his age, McDavid, 18, has been able to tune out the majority of the surrounding white noise related to his future. What’s partially helped him turn a deaf ear to all the outside chatter is the playoff run his Erie Otters have been on, which includes eliminations of the Sarnia Sting and the London Knights.

Even so, he fully understands the life-changing moment that awaits him on Saturday evening. And with his parents and friends on hand in downtown Toronto for the occasion, he’s going to embrace it all.

“It’s pretty fun. It’s all in good fun,” McDavid said during a recent interview.

Even with all the McDavid-mania that has ballooned with every passing week, every day, every hour leading up to the lottery?

“I’ve never had much trouble blocking it out,” he said. “This is getting down to crunch time. It’s an exciting time.

“It’s been nice that I’ve been able to not to think about it too much. I took the stance that it’ll happen when it happens. There really wasn’t too much you could do to make it come any faster.”

And now, it’s almost here.

But where will he go?

One thing we do know: There will be no Eric Lindros-like refusals to report to certain teams, a stance the Big E took when he made it clear he would not play for the Quebec Nordiques. McDavid’s willingness to join whatever franchise chooses him is music to the ears of those 14 teams that are eligible for the lottery.

To that end, in a recent exclusive one-on-one sitdown with the Sun, McDavid broke down the five teams with the best odds of winning the lottery -- and how he would fit in with each one.

1. BUFFALO SABRES

Odds Of Winning Lottery: 20%

OF NOTE: Fans in Buffalo have been wearing Sabres No. 97 McDavid jerseys for almost a year.

CONNOR’S TAKE: “I love Buffalo. It’s a great place. I know it very well. Playing in Erie, I’ve been to Buffalo a whole bunch. It’s kind of the closest (NHL) place to Erie and there are a lot of Sabres fans living in the area. I live with a diehard Sabres fan in my billet (Bob Catalde). It’s a special place.”

2. ARIZONA COYOTES

Odds Of Winning Lottery: 13:5%

OF NOTE: Max Domi and Anthony Duclair, two of McDavid’s gold medal-winning teammates with the Canadian world junior team, are with the Coyotes organization. Some prognosticators already are predicting a Domi-McDavid-Duclair line if Arizona wins the lottery.

CONNOR’S TAKE: “I don’t know too much about the place. I’ve never been there. I don’t really know what anything’s like down there but I’m sure it’s great. I haven’t heard anything but great things from Max. And obviously Dukes (Duclair) is there. That would be a fun opportunity.”

3. EDMONTON OILERS

Odds Of Winning Lottery: 11.5%

OF NOTE: Oilers held first overall pick for three consecutive years: 2010 (Taylor Hall), 2011 (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins), 2012 (Nail Yakupov).

CONNOR’S TAKE: “That’s a great hockey town. They love their hockey. Obviously they’ve been on a bit of a slide the last couple of years. That’s allowed them to get some unbelievably amazing players that play there now. They’re just kind of a young team now, I guess. I’m not quite sure what’s going on (moving forward). That would be an awesome place as well.”

4. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Odds of Winning Lottery: 9.5%

OF NOTE: Grew up in Newmarket as a Leaf fan. Played minor hockey and lacrosse on the same line as Tristan Joseph, son of former Leaf Curtis Joseph. Cujo remains a mentor and role model to Connor as well as a friend of the McDavid family.

CONNOR’S TAKE: “As I’ve told you before, playing for the Leafs would be a dream come true. I can’t help it -- I’ve cheered for them since I was a kid. I still remember going to my first game. I predicted in the car they would win 4-1. And they ended up beating the Rangers 4-1! I’ll never forget that.”

5. CAROLINA HURRICANES

Odds Of Winning Lottery: 8.5%

OF NOTE: In terms of tutors for a young centre like McDavid, this would be an ideal spot given the presence of the Staal brothers, Eric and Jordan, and GM Ron Francis, a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

CONNOR’S TAKE: “That’s kind of another place I don’t know too much about. Obviously the (Staal brothers) are there. That’s kind of a big perk of being in Carolina, to see those guys, to be around them, to see what they do each and every day. I know Ryan Murphy a little bit. Not too much. We grew up in kind of the same area. That’s an awesome possibility.”

Eichel can focus on Sabres or Coyotes

For Connor McDavid, almost half of the NHL's 30 teams remain in the hunt for his ridiculously-talented services.

In the case of Jack Eichel, there realistically are only two.

As the projected first overall pick, McDavid will be keeping a keen eye on Saturday night's NHL draft lottery, a format in which all 14 non-playoff teams are in the mix to get the top selection. The Buffalo Sabres have the best odds among eligible teams at 20%, while the Boston Bruins have the worst at just 1%.

For Eichel, the formula is a much simpler one.

If the 30th-place Sabres win the lottery -- meaning they'll retain the first overall pick in the June entry draft -- they're expected to snap up McDavid, leaving the 29th place Coyotes to likely grab Eichel with the No. 2 selection.

If, however, the lottery balls don't come out in the Sabres favour, they'll still select second, a spot in which they'll likely scoop Eichel since McDavid will already be off the board.

Either way, here's the bottom line: When all is said and done, Jack Eichel stands to be either a Buffalo Sabre or Arizona Coyote, barring unforeseen circumstances.

McDavid, Boston College defenceman Noah Hanifin and McDavid's Erie teammate, Dylan Strome, will all be in attendance in Toronto Saturday, where the draft lottery will take place at Sportsnet's downtown TV studios. Eichel, however, will not.

mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/zeisberger