'Can You Imagine?'

Fingers firmly crossed.

And a famous No. 9 in the Flames’ corner.

This evening’s lottery will determine where Calgary will select with the first of their two first-round picks at June's NHL Draft in Las Vegas.

Sportsnet will carry the TV broadcast, beginning at 4:30 p.m. MT.

There’s a chance - a 5% one - that the Flames could wind up with the first-overall selection.

Calgary has the ninth-best odds at securing the number-one pick, so naturally, the franchise’s most famous No. 9, Lanny McDonald, will be on hand to look on.

“So you’re telling me there’s a chance?” McDonald asked quizzically when reached by phone Monday afternoon. “To be able to move up, can you imagine getting that top pick? Oh my gosh, that’s a game-changer for the organization.

“You’re moving into a new arena in a few years, you’ve got an exciting young player on the horizon; there’s so many good things (that) come with that draft lottery, how could you not be excited?”

Flames GM Craig Conroy says having the Hall of Famer in his corner this evening will be amazing, although he concedes the idea to include McDonald in the Draft Lottery proceedings wasn't his idea.

"I wish I could take credit for it, but my wife actually was like ‘Craig, you have the No. 9 pick, you have Lanny,'" he said with a laugh. "I’m like ‘OK, good call!'

"Just to have him there, everything he went through, what he means to this organization, it’s going to be special no matter what happens."

The Flames have never had a first-overall pick, going all the way back to their time in Atlanta in the 1970s.

And of the 16 teams taking part in the lottery, only 11 actually have a shot at winning the top selection thanks to new regulations introduced by the NHL in 2021.

The San Jose Sharks have the best odds at that No.-1 pick - an 18.5% chance - but as we tick down the final hours of anticipation, Conroy says there's a sense of optimism that maybe, just maybe, the odds will be in the Flames' favour.

"We’re in the lottery, we’ve got a 5% chance, we want to win it just like everybody else does, we have that optimism where we’ll see how it goes in a little while," Conroy said. "We’re excited about it, even though you never want to be in the lottery, while we’re here we might as well win this thing!"

Both Conroy and McDonald figure it’d be a pretty cool moment for the city, too, if those wishes of a No.-1 pick came true.

“To move up like that, that is magical,” McDonald said.

“I can’t imagine how excited this city would be if that did happen.”