Flyers to learn NHL draft lottery fate on May 8

Flyers fans, you can finally mark your calendars.

The NHL announced Wednesday that it will hold the draft lottery on Monday, May 8 at the NHL Network studios in Secaucus, N.J. The draft lottery will air from 7-7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN in the United States, and Sportsnet and TVAS in Canada.

The lottery takes on added significance this season, as the winner would presumably land Regina Pats forward, and consensus No. 1 pick, Connor Bedard, who has torn up both the Western Hockey League (61 goals, 125 points in 51 games) and World Juniors (nine goals, 23 points in seven games). Bedard is viewed as a generational talent and has been compared to the likes of Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby.

» READ MORE: With Flyers officially acknowledging a ‘rebuild,’ all eyes turn to June’s NHL draft

Flyers fans will need to pray to the hockey gods for some lottery luck, as the team currently holds the fifth-best odds, or an 8.5% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, per Tankathon. Columbus currently sits in pole position with a 25.5% chance of landing Bedard. The Flyers, who fired general manager and president of hockey operations Chuck Fletcher last Friday, are in full rebuild mode and seem finally prepared to take a more long-term approach.

The 2023 draft, which will be held from June 28-29 in Nashville, Tenn., is believed to be strong with Bedard and three other players who would normally be in the conversation to be selected with the No. 1 overall pick. Those other three players are University of Michigan freshman Adam Fantilli, Russian winger Matvei Michkov, and Swedish center Leo Carlsson. All three have received NHL All-Star projections from most draft experts.

Last season, the Flyers finished with the fourth-worst record in the NHL but wound up with the No. 5 pick after the lottery draw. They selected forward Cutter Gauthier from the United States national development team program. Gauthier just completed his first season at Boston College, tallying 16 goals and 37 points in 32 games.

Interim general manager Danny Brière, and his son Carson, both issued statements Wednesday after a video surfaced of Carson, a hockey player at Mercyhurst University, pushing a vacant wheelchair down a flight of stairs at a bar over the weekend. The wheelchair allegedly belonged to a patron who was in the bathroom at the time. “I was shocked to see Carson’s actions in the video that was shared on social media yesterday,” Brière wrote. “They are inexcusable and run completely counter to our family’s values of treating people with respect.” ... The Flyers loaned goaltender Samuel Ersson back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Wednesday. Ersson served as the backup goalie on Tuesday night against the Vegas Golden Knights with Carter Hart unavailable due to illness.

» READ MORE: Firing Chuck Fletcher gives the Flyers a shot at a fresh start. They had better take it.