San jose >> When it comes to winning the NHL Draft Lottery and earning the right to select center Macklin Celebrini, the Sharks are in the driver’s seat after a historic collapse against their prime competition for the pick.

The Sharks’ 5-4 overtime loss to Chicago kept them in last place in the NHL’s overall standings — as they sit five points back of the 31st-place Blackhawks — with less than a month left in the regular season.

In 2,749 games as a franchise, including playoffs, the Sharks’ result on Saturday marked the first time in team history that they led by as many as four goals and still lost.

In a season of excruciating lows for San Jose, Saturday’s loss had to be the most gutting.

“You can never take your foot off the pedal,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “I don’t think we did it too much, but enough to get them back in the game.

“Overall, I liked our game. They were opportunistic, and we got a little bit away from what we were doing early in the game to build the lead that we did. But they made plays when they needed to.”

The Sharks got here by having a league-worst 2-14-3 record since Feb. 14 when they returned from a two-week break.

If the Sharks (16-46-8) remain in last place, they’ll have a 25.5 percent chance of winning the lottery — something that’s never happened in team history — and taking Celebrini, the former Jr. Sharks star who was the third-leading scorer in NCAA Division I this regular season with 30 goals and 55 points in 33 games for Boston University.

The draft lottery odds for the team with the second-worst record drop to 13.5 percent, and 11.5 percent for the third-worst team.

If the Sharks finish with the NHL’s worst record, they will draft no lower than third overall.

“Hopefully this summer is a good summer,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said recently. “Hopefully we get a little luck with the lottery and hopefully next year we’re in a place where we can kind of take a step forward after kind of two years of kind of peeling it back a little bit.”

Here’s where things stand for the NHL’s bottom three teams entering the final stretch of the season.

30. Anaheim Ducks

record >> 24-43-3, 51 points, 12 games remaining before Sunday

Home (5) >> Tampa Bay, Seattle, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Calgary.

Road (7) >> Seattle (twice), Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, Los Angeles, Vegas

Remaining opponents’ points percentage >> .569 (14th-hardest in NHL, per Tankathon)

Outlook >> The Ducks just snapped a seven-game losing streak by beating Chicago 4-0 at home on Thursday. During the streak, though they were outscored 35-7. Trading Adam Henrique, Sam Carrick, and Ilya Lyubushkin decimated an already thin lineup. The only good news for the Ducks is that their skid solidified their chances of picking inside the top five for the third time in four years, as, before Sunday, they were seven points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for 29th.

Remember, it was the team with the league’s third-worst record, Chicago, that won the draft lottery last season.

“It’s crucial not to start playing the wrong way, especially with the young guys and creating bad habits,” Ducks forward Troy Terry said. “We’ve got to keep playing the right way and not feeling sorry for ourselves.”

31. Chicago Blackhawks

Record >> 20-46-5, 45 points, 11 games remaining

Home (5) >> Calgary, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, Carolina

Road (5) >> Ottawa, Philadelphia, N.Y. Islanders, St. Louis, Vegas, Los Angeles

Remaining opponents’ points percentage >> .576 (10th-hardest in NHL)

Outlook >> A year after winning the Connor Bedard sweepstakes, the Blackhawks are right back in the mix for the first overall selection. Since Bedard returned to the lineup on Feb. 15, though, Chicago is a not-so-atrocious 6-10-2, and there are more opportunities to pick up points the rest of this month with games against Calgary and Ottawa after beating the Sharks twice in a week.

Goalie Petr Mrazek has a middling .878 save percentage in March but earned both wins. Don’t be surprised if Chicago catches Anaheim.

32. San Jose Sharks

Record >> 16-46-8, 40 points, 12 games remaining

Home (7) >> Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Arizona, Calgary, Minnesota.

Road (5) >> Minnesota, St. Louis, Seattle, Edmonton, Calgary.

Remaining opponents’ points percentage >> .550 (18th-hardest in NHL)

Outlook >> How many more games will the Sharks win this season? How many other opponents can they realistically beat? Since the break, the Sharks have allowed a league-worst 4.47 goals per game.

Grier has effectively torn the team down to the studs by trading Timo Meier, Erik Karlsson, and Tomas Hertl — mostly for future assets — all within about 54 weeks. But say this about the Sharks: They still work hard — most of the time. They just don’t have the horses to win many games and will be an underdog just about every time they play the rest of the season.

“It is what it is. This is our team until the end of the year,” Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic said after the trade deadline. “Go out have fun, be competitive, try to win some games. It’s easy to do when you love what you do.”