Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The ping-pong balls sort of went the Chicago Blackhawks’ way. The Hawks did not win the NHL Draft Lottery despite having the second-best odds.

They did get a nice consolation prize as the Blackhawks will pick second in the first round of this year’s draft. Despite finishing second to last in the NHL, the Hawks had a 14.1% chance of leaving the lottery with the second pick.

So maintaining position is a win right there despite losing out on the chance to pair Connor Bedard with Macklin Celebrini, the top prospect in the draft.

While having Celebrini would have accelerated the Hawks’ rebuild, it still gives the organization a chance to get a talented prospect.

That should help the Hawks farm system ranking get back into the top five (a subscription is required to access the link). There are three other benefits of the Blackhawks getting the second pick.

The Blackhawks are losing three veteran defensemen to free agency and rightfully so. The Hawks thankfully are moving on from Nikita Zaitsev, Jaycob Megna, and Jarred Tinordi.

The Blackhawks can go through free agency to replace three of them. They also can give prospect Wyatt Kaiser another shot to win a job long-term. Isaak Philips is another prospect who could break camp with the Blackhawks. Maybe Ethan Del Mastro’s outstanding season for the Rockford IceHogs and very brief time with the Hawks might get him a shot to also make the Blackhawks’ Opening Night roster.

What that could mean is the Blackhawks’ top-20 prospects will be bereft of blue-liners (a subscription is required to access the link). Nolan Allan and Sam Rinzel would be left among the top prospects.

Thankfully, most of the talent at the top of the draft are defensemen. Artyom Levshunov, Anton Silayev, Zeev Buium, Zayne Parekh, and Sam Dickinson are all options that the Hawks can bring in to help the blueline’s future. Let’s be real, Kaiser, Philips, and Del Mastro are all talented, but maybe they end up being like Nick Leddy, a talented player that has to move on to develop.

That is why adding an elite defensive prospect at the top of this draft can reinforce the prospect pool.

The possibility to add size at forward.

The front office loves prospects who can skate and have skill. That usually means the prospects are typically on the smallish side.

Cayden Lindstrom is a prospect with speed and skill along with size. He is a prospect that varies from the top five to the top ten in rankings.

He has the ability to be the type of player that go to the net while on a line with Bedard.

The Blackhawks could draft Ivan Demidov who still has a year left on his KHL contract. He could come over in two seasons when guys like Nick Foligno and Jason Dickinson will be entering the final year of their extensions.

The Hawks can get a potential offensive threat on a cheap deal and maintain their cap flexibility if they take him. Avoiding being up against the cap is a biggest goal of the front office during the rebuild.

That is the biggest benefit of getting the second pick.