Alexis Lafreniere was supposed to walk on stage on Friday night in Montreal as the top pick in the NHL draft.
After the COVID-19 pandemic paused the hockey season and postponed that possibility, Lafreniere was supposed to find out Friday night where he would be going when the league held its draft lottery. Instead, he must wait a little bit longer.
Chaos reigned at the NHL draft lottery, with the No. 1 pick still up for grabs in a second lottery drawing among the eight teams that lose in the qualifying round of the playoffs — if play resumes.
Photo: AP
“We all knew this could happen,” Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said. “It definitely has been a different 2020 compared to every other year that I’ve been on the face of this Earth.”
As part of the NHL’s 24-team playoff format if it resumes, 16 teams are to play each other in a best-of-five series to move on — and the losers of those matchups now have a major consolation prize looming: equal 12.5 percent odds of landing Lafreniere.
“Still not drafted, so we’ll still have to wait a little bit,” said Lafreniere, a star left winger for Rimouski Oceanic in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League who also was captain of Canada’s world junior championship gold medal-winning team.
The league’s bottom seven teams that had their seasons ended when play was paused on March 12 would have been off for nine months or more if the start of the 2020-2021 season is delayed until December or January next year.
They also cannot pencil Lafreniere into their lineup.
Meanwhile, Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins or Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers could get lucky again or Taylor Hall could bring his lottery luck to a third franchise.
The league-worst Detroit Red Wings dropped to fourth, the Los Angeles Kings got the second pick and the Senators ended up with Nos. 3 and 5, because of the 2018 Erik Karlsson trade with San Jose.
The drama was down to the Kings or a still-to-be-determined team, and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly unveiled a card with the NHL logo on it at No. 1.
“It’s a little strange when they flip it over and you have to process that there is a secondary lottery that’s going to take place,” Kings general manager Rob Blake said. “Everything has kind of taken a different path since the pause and you maneuver your way around it.”
The winning placeholder team got the top pick despite a 2.5 percent chance. Ottawa had the best odds at 25 percent combining its pick and San Jose’s, Detroit had an 18.5 percent chance — and the combined eight teams that could play on this summer added up to 24.5 percent
“I’m not really surprised,” Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said. “The odds were better that the first pick went to [one of] the bottom eight than it did to us.”
Detroit finished with 39 points, 23 points behind 30th-placed Ottawa, and was the biggest loser of the night dropping out of the top three. The Red Wings had a league-low 17 wins in their 71-game season.
Yzerman, who the Red Wings took fourth in 1983 and went on to be a Hockey Hall of Famer, brought up that Colorado lost the 2017 draft lottery and at No. 4 took Cale Makar, a rookie of the year candidate.
“Ultimately, let’s see in a few years when we see how the draft shakes out and who becomes a good player,” Yzerman said. “We can sit here today and feel sorry for ourselves if we want. It doesn’t matter. The system is what it is, and it’s the same for all the teams. We’ll get a great prospect and do whatever we can to develop him. Maybe we will get lucky.”
The San Jose Sharks are perhaps even less fortunate after not being in contention this season and losing out on the chance to take someone such as center Quinton Byfield second. That opportunity belongs to Ottawa, which is the first team since 2000 to have two picks in the top five.
“It’s a major step forward in our carefully laid plan to build a perennial Stanley Cup contender — and a champion,” Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said.
The Anaheim Ducks wound up with the sixth pick, New Jersey Devils the seventh and Buffalo Sabres the eighth. No. 1 and picks 9-15 are to be decided later.
The top four teams in each conference — Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers in the East and St Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars in the West — got byes into the traditional “first round” of the playoffs that could start as soon as late July.
If hockey does not return, the teams outside the top eight in each conference March 12 by points percentage all have equal chances at No. 1: the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Arizona Coyotes, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers and Columbus Blue Jackets.
‘CRIMINAL ACT’: The UCI said it ‘strongly condemns’ Dylan Groenewegen’s ‘dangerous behavior,’ which left Jakobsen in critical condition and injured other cyclists Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen was in a coma on Wednesday, in “serious” condition, after he was thrown into and over a barrier at 80kph in the conclusion to the opening stage of the Tour de Pologne. Footage showed 23-year-old Jakobsen, of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step, racing elbow-to-elbow with fellow Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen of Jumbo-Visma as both men frantically tussled in a tight sprint to the line in Katowice. However, Jakobsen came off worst, somersaulting over the barriers before colliding with a photographer after Groenewegen had veered suddenly to the right, squeezing his rival into the security wall. “His condition is very serious. His life is
Growing concern over health standards in e-sports has prompted a new federation to pledge to address the problem, as players fall victim to conditions ranging from wrist injuries to obesity, stress and diabetes. The retirement of top Chinese player Jian Zihao, better known by his gaming handle “Uzi,” sent tremors through the booming sport, whose revenues are predicted to reach US$1.1 billion this year, according to industry analyst Newzoo. The 23-year-old, hailed as an “icon” of the League of Legends game, stepped away from e-sports in June, saying that “chronic stress, obesity, irregular diet, staying up late and other reasons” had given
‘COMPLICATED’: The 34-year-old from Spain called sitting out the tournament ‘a decision I never wanted to take,’ but added that he would ‘rather not travel’ Defending champion Rafael Nadal has said that he would skip the US Open because of the COVID-19 pandemic, putting on hold his bid to equal Roger Federer’s men’s record for Grand Slam titles. On Tuesday, Nadal explained his decision in a series of tweets sent in Spanish and English. “The situation is very complicated worldwide. Coronavirus cases are increasing. It looks like we still don’t have control of it,” Nadal wrote. The 34-year-old from Spain called sitting out the tournament scheduled to begin on Aug. 31 in New York “a decision I never wanted to take,” but added that he would “rather not
The Braves were dealt a double blow as the Mets’ Jacob deGrom struck out 10 in six innings to help New York snap a five-game skid with a 7-2 victory on Monday, and as Atlanta top pitcher Mike Soroka went down with a torn Achilles tendon in the third inning. “There’s no sugarcoating this night,” Atlanta slugger Freddie Freeman said. “It stinks. It really does.” Soroka crumpled to the ground on a seemingly routine play, breaking toward first to cover the bag on a grounder to Freeman’s right. “When you lose, in my mind, one of the top pitching arms in this entire
RSS