Maple Leafs, Sabres were next closest to winning draft lottery

The Edmonton Oilers won the NHL Draft Lottery on Saturday and earned the right to make the first overall selection in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.

Things could have gone differently, though.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were the next closest team to winning the lottery, followed by the Buffalo Sabres, Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News reports.

Harrington writes:

When you study the NHL's official video of Saturday night's actual lottery, the first three ping-pong balls drawn in order are 5, 14 and 6.

At that point, a Buffalo News analysis of all the possible combinations reveals there were only five teams remaining who could win the draw on the final ball -- Buffalo, Toronto, Edmonton, Carolina and Columbus.

The final ball drawn was 1, which belonged to Edmonton. Nos. 5-6-14 had already been drawn. If the last ball was the following numbers, here's how the result would have played out:

2 -- Toronto
3 -- Buffalo
4 -- Carolina
7 -- Toronto
8 -- Toronto
9 -- Columbus
10 -- Edmonton
11 -- Buffalo
12 -- Buffalo
13 -- Toronto

So going into the last ball, Toronto had the best chance (4 out of 11 numbers). Buffalo had 3 of 11, Edmonton had 2 of 11, while Carolina and Columbus had one each. The Oilers had the last-ball luck on their side.

With the Oilers winning the draft, the Sabres will select second overall and the Maple Leafs fourth overall.

Buffalo GM Tim Murray and Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan must have pulled their hair out after learning of the potential results that could have been.