Manifesting some luck for the Columbus Blue Jackets at the NHL Draft lottery

If you're like me, you're cautiously excited about tomorrow's NHL Draft lottery. Currently, the Blue Jackets hold the fourth best odds (9.5%) at landing the prized #1 overall pick, and the chance to select Macklin Celebrini.

Historically speaking, however, the odds aren't in our favor. Never have been. The Jackets have finished in the bottom-5 of the league standings 9 times in their 24-year existence. Including a league-worst record in the 2011-12 season, where they still didn't keep the first pick.

They've finished in the bottom-10 a handful of other times, more than we should be proud to admit. Yet in their dismal history, they've held the first overall pick just one time - selecting Rick Nash at the 2002 Draft.

To get that pick, they had to trade up from third. In one of Doug MacLean's boldest moves, the Jackets landed their first franchise player. Since then, it's been mostly hard times for this team at the draft and its lottery.

When they have had seasons of bottoming out, it always seemed to come in years when the draft wasn't particularly strong. That 2011-12 team was a prime example: they were bad enough to guarantee a top-two pick, in a draft that proved historically poor.

Just one player in that draft has exceeded 600 points. Putting that into perspective, there are multiple players from each of the next three years of drafting, who have achieved that mark.

In all of their years of struggles, the Jackets have "won" just one NHL Draft lottery: in 2016, they moved up one spot to select third overall, nabbing Pierre-Luc Dubois.

And, fittingly enough, that jump in the order was just enough for them to land outside of the highly sought after top-two picks.

If you're superstitious like myself, you're hoping that our luck wasn't completely exhausted last summer. Yes, the Jackets actually fell in the draft order, but we saw the player we most coveted (outside of Connor Bedard) fall into our laps at third overall.

So, what can we do to convince the hockey Gods to help us out one more time here? I have a few ideas to lay at their feet.