Minnesota Wild Prepare For NHL Lottery Tonight

The Minnesota Wild will be watching closely tonight as the first 14 picks of the 2012 NHL Draft will be determined at the 2012 Scotiabank NHL Draft Lottery at 8 p.m. ET. The Wild have a 4.7 percent chance for the top pick, the seventh best odds in the NHL.

The lottery will air on both TSN and NBC Sports Network.

Minnesota finished a mediocre 35-36-11 during the regular season. It has now missed the playoffs for the last four seasons.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have the best odds for the top pick at (25 percent) followed by the Edmonton Oilers (18.8 percent), Montreal Canadiens (14.4 percent), New York Islanders (10.7 percent) and Toronto Maple Leafs (8.1 percent).

The rest of the odds for the first pick are as followed:

Anaheim Ducks - 6.2 percent
Minnesota Wild - 4.7 percent
Carolina Hurricanes - 3.6 percent
Winnipeg Jets - 2.7 percent
Tampa Bay Lightning - 2.1 percent
Washington Capitals (from Colorado) - 1.5 percent
Buffalo Sabres - 1.1 percent
Dallas Stars - 0.8 percent
Calgary Flames - 0.5 percent

For more on the Minnesota Wild, check out Hockey Wilderness. You can check out more hockey news from around the league at SB Nation's NHL page.