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“The fact we sit sixth and are most likely to pick seventh or eighth is hard,” Canucks president Trevor Linden said. “It’s probably swung a little bit too far. Last year, you saw teams from 13th and eighth move up into the top three.”

Photo by Jeff Vinnick / PNG

Not all lotteries are created equal, however. Missing out on the winning ping-pong balls at last year’s lottery was hardly the end of the world. There was already a strong push in the Canucks’ organization from scouts lobbying for Elias Pettersson, who ended up being picked at No. 5.

“Last year, there wasn’t the big prize,” said Linden, whose reactions at the lottery have been screen-grabbed and turned into memes.

“We knew (Elias) could be at No. 5 and we kind of expected him to be. Honestly, I knew what was going to happen (the Canucks moving back in 2017) at the lottery and I was prepared for it.

“When I saw 13 flip and eight flip, I knew we were done and we were likely moving back. I did everything to look like I was fine with it, but I guess I didn’t do a very good job.”

Linden has passed the lottery sit-in responsibilities to GM Jim Benning, who will be on hand to witness the results. It is sure to end all the Canucks-related lottery memes. Wait, no it isn’t.

This time there is not only a big prize, there is a player who can change the entire conversation engulfing the Vancouver Canucks and their rebuild. Defenceman Rasmus Dahlin is a game changer. In this draft there is Dahlin, a huge gap and then everyone else.

To put it in perspective, the next two rated prospects, Andrei Svechnikov and Filip Zadina, would have been in the mix for first and second overall if they were in the 2017 draft. They aren’t even in the same universe as the No. 1 pick in 2018.