We will find out on Saturday which team will win the right to pick Connor McDavid. (Getty Images)
We will find out on Saturday which team will win the right to pick Connor McDavid. (Getty Images)

On Saturday night the NHL will reveal the results of what might be its most anticipated draft lottery yet and potentially change the long-term fortunes of one very lucky team.

The light at the end of the tunnel for every bad team in the league this season has been the chance to land one of the two phenom prospects -- Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel -- that will be available at the top of the 2015 draft in June, with McDavid being the biggest prize of them all.

The season long hype regarding McDavid and Eichel has ignited a season-long debate on tanking as fans in Buffalo, the one team that seemed to be going out of its way from a managerial standpoint to position itself for a top pick in the draft, fully embraced it by actually cheering for their team to lose. And they would have been crazy not to do that. 

On Saturday, we take another step toward finding out where these guys will end up. 

All 14 teams that missed the postseason have a chance to win the top pick in the draft, a group that surprisingly includes both the defending Stanley Cup champion (Los Angeles Kings) and Presidents' Trophy winners (Boston Bruins). 

While every non-playoff team has a chance to win the top pick, some need it more than others. And some would be more entertaining. Let's go through some of the options.

The team with the best chance to win the top pick: Buffalo Sabres

And that, more than anything else, makes the 2014-15 season a success for the Sabres. 

The thing about the draft lottery and the way it is set up is that even when you are in Buffalo's position and have the best odds (20 percent) you still have a far greater chance of picking second than first.

But that is why finishing last during the regular season was so important for Sabres fans. This is the last year where the worst record in the league guarantees a team no worse than the No. 2 overall pick, and that is why Eichel, and not necessarily McDavid, is what made this season so fascinating from a draft position standpoint. If there was only one top prospect available and the worst team only had a 20 percent chance of landing him this story never takes on a life of its own the way it did.

Because there are two of them, and finishing with the worst record guarantees you at least one of them, there was a clear advantage to being not only a bad team, but an historically bad team. 

Here are the odds for every team in the lottery to win the top pick.

Buffalo Sabres: 20.0 percent

Arizona Coyotes: 13.5 percent

Edmonton Oilers: 11.5 percent

Toronto Maple Leafs: 9.5 percent

Carolina Hurricanes: 8.5 percent

New Jersey Devils: 7.5 percent

Philadelphia Flyers: 6.5 percent

Columbus Blue Jackets: 6.0 percent

San Jose Sharks: 5.0 percent

Colorado Avalanche: 3.5 percent

Florida Panthers: 3.0 percent

Dallas Stars: 2.5 percent

Los Angeles Kings: 2.0 percent

Boston Bruins: 1.0 percent

The team that needs Connor McDavid the most: Arizona Coyotes

Even though they have a nice collection of prospects and a bunch of top draft picks still coming their way (they have two first round draft picks this season after originally having three -- one of them is going to Winnipeg as part of the Evander Kane trade) the Sabres definitely need McDavid. But even if they lose the draft lottery they still have Jack Eichel coming their way and not only is that not a bad consolation prize, that is a pick you would be thrilled to make No. 1 overall in almost any other year.

So they have that going for them.

But Arizona. Arizona needs this in so many ways.

Even though they have been in Phoenix since 1996 it is an organization that is still trying to find its place in the market, and even though they have had some success in recent years, going as far as the Western Conference Final in 2012, they have never had a superstar offensive player that can not only be the foundation of a potential championship team, but also a player that can put butts in seats. 

Connor McDavid can be that player.

And with skilled prospects like Max Domi and Anthony Ducliar on the verge of making their NHL debuts in the very near future the Coyotes would at least have the potential to have an exciting young core to build around. 

The best prospect since Sidney Crosby ending up in Arizona is probably the worst possible scenario for hockey traditionalists (and maybe even the folks in the NHL offices) that still hate seeing hockey west of Minnesota and anywhere near the south, but this team and this market needs this.

They need it more than any other team in the lottery. 

The most entertaining options (for hockey reasons): Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Columbus Blue Jackets

Any of them, really.

They are all pretty good teams that could very easily be in the playoffs next season even without winning the draft lottery, and they all have young, franchise players that could form a dynamite core with McDavid alongside them. 

While teams like Boston and Los Angeles are certainly better and closer to a Stanley Cup than this group, for purely selfish reasons I want to see McDavid go to a team that is going to showcase his skill, and the style of play in Boston and Los Angeles just does not lend itself to this. Sorry, guys.

These three teams could do that, especialy Dallas and Florida. 

The Stars were already the highest scoring team in the NHL this past season. If you add McDavid to a roster that already has the NHL's leading scorer (Jamie Benn), one of the most talented and best players in the league (Tyler Seguin), and another young stud in Valeri Nichushkin you might have the best quartet of players in the NHL under the age of 26. 

Florida, meanwhile, is already one of the more interesting teams in the league given the makeup of its roster. They didn't make the playoffs this season, but they are an up-and-coming team that will be there sooner rather than later. The Panthers have the 2014 No. 1 overall pick already on the roster, Aaron Ekblad, that just had one of the best seasons in NHL history for an 18-year-old defenseman, and a very strong group of young players led by Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Brandon Pirri. But what makes them so fascinating is that to go with that young core you also have a fun group of veterans with Roberto Luongo in goal and Jaromir Jagr still looking like he can play at a high level on the wing until he's 50. 

Columbus is kind of the best of both worlds.

They fall into the same "hey, this market and franchise can really use a player like this" category as Arizona, and they're also a pretty solid team that could be close to doing something special in the near future. Even though it appears as if they took a step back this season by missing the playoffs, they were only one win short of their 2013-14 total (when they made the playoffs and gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a run for their money in the first round) despite being crushed by injuries for most of the season.

You could build one hell of a hockey team around McDavid and Ryan Johansen. Give them a reasonably healthy roster and a young franchise player and you might have just that. 

The most entertaining option (for non-hockey reasons): The Toronto Maple Leafs

Do you like conspiracy theories? Allegations that the whole thing is rigged? Do you like maximum chaos?

Well, if you do, then you should probably be rooting like hell for the Toronto Maple Leafs to win this thing. 

The option nobody wants to see: The Edmonton Oilers

Draft lotteries are pretty much the only thing the Oilers win lately, having won the top pick in three of the past five drafts. And they're still a raging inferno of a dumpster fire. No offense, Oilers fans, but nobody wants to subject Connor McDavid to that.