Sabres assured of 31st-place finish, best draft lottery odds

The Buffalo Sabres made history Wednesday by becoming the first team to finish 31st in the NHL standings.

Buffalo clinched the league's last-place position with a regulation loss to the Ottawa Senators, whom the Sabres won't be able to catch with only two games remaining and a five-point gap between them.

It marks Buffalo's third last-place finish in the past five seasons, as the Sabres dropped to 30th in both 2013-14 and 2014-15. The addition of the Vegas Golden Knights this season pushed Buffalo a notch below those campaigns, albeit with more points earned in 2017-18 than in either of the other two.

As a result, the Sabres will have the highest odds of landing the top pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, with an 18.5 percent chance of winning the lottery to be held April 28 in Toronto.

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