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Flyers looking for some luck in Saturday's NHL's draft lottery

They currently hold the No. 13 pick. Their chances of getting the top pick is barely 2 percent.

As a "reward" for missing the playoffs, the Flyers will participate in the NHL draft lottery Saturday night in Toronto and have a chance to get one of the first three overall picks in the June 23 draft.

The lottery will determine the draft's first 15 selections.

The Flyers' odds of getting the top selection are just 2.2 percent. Colorado, at 18 percent, has the best chance to get the No. 1 overall pick, which is likely to be center Nolan Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Western Hockey League. He is a former WHL teammate of Flyers rookie Ivan Provorov.

Forwards compose the strongest part of this year's draft, according to Flyers general manager Ron Hextall. That's a good thing for the Flyers, whose much-improved farm system is still thin on quality scorers.

If the Flyers get lucky and land one of the top three picks, they would probably select one of the following highly-touted centers, depending on where they were slotted and who was available: Patrick, Niko Hischier, Martin Necas, or Gabriel Vilardi.

Assuming no one with a worse record than the Flyers moves up in the draft, the Flyers would pick 13th overall, if they don't win the lottery.

In past drafts, some of the top players selected at No. 13 include forwards Dustin Brown, Alexander Semin, Drew Stafford, Danny Cleary, and Ales Hemsky, and goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who helped lead Anaheim to the 2007 Stanley Cup.

The Flyers have never drafted 13th overall in franchise history.

This is the fourth draft since Hextall became general manager. During that time, the Flyers have selected Provorov and Travis Konency - two players who were regulars this past season - and talented prospects such as Travis Sanheim, Oskar Lindblom, Felix Sandstrom, Mikhail Vorobyov, German Rubtsov, Carter Hart, Pascal Laberge, and Connor Bunnaman.

Phantoms' plight

For the second straight game, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Flyers' top farm team, will try to avoid elimination as they face host Hershey on Saturday night.

Hershey leads the best-of-five, opening-round Calder Cup series, two games to one.

Lehigh Valley, which stayed alive with a 2-1 overtime win on Wednesday, is trying to force a decisive Game 5, which would be played in Allentown on Sunday at 5:05 p.m.

The Phantoms were the AHL's highest-scoring team in the regular season, but they have managed just a total of six goals in the first three playoff games against the Bears. Hershey is filled with veterans from a team that reached the Calder Cup Finals last season.

scarchidi@phillynews.com

@BroadStBull www.philly.com/flyersblog