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Trevor Linden has a suggestion for the Vancouver Canucks faithful in advance of Saturday’s National Hockey League draft lottery in Toronto.

Head to a convenience store and purchase a lottery ticket. Choose the random draw option or, if you’re into favourite numbers, include 12, 1, 2 and 4. The Canucks have a 12.124 chance — second to the Colorado Avalanche at 17.936 per cent — of winning the weighted system to select first at the June draft in Chicago.

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“That’s about as much preparation as you can do,” said Linden, the Canucks president of hockey operations, who hasn’t played the Draft Lottery Simulator this year but “might have” a year ago when Auston Matthews was the coveted prize.

“It’s a helpless feeling. And it’s nerve-racking because you have no control.”

The lottery will be part of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast and the suspense starts shortly after 4:30 p.m. Vancouver time.

However, before the card-flipping reveal of the draft order, there will be a curiosity about how 15 ping-pong balls for lottery-eligible teams in that drum actually pop up. We don’t see that play out on television. Either does Linden.