Penguins have a shot at No. 1 draft pick
Draft lottery leaves lucky team in question
Should the Penguins lose in the qualifying round of the NHL’s expanded 24-team postseason tournament, there’s a chance – 12.5% to be exact – it could come with a nice consolation prize: The No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
On Friday evening, the NHL held a modified draft lottery. The weighted draw included the seven clubs who failed to qualify for the tournament, plus eight placeholders for teams that will get eliminated in the opening round.
When it came time to flip over the card for the No. 1 draft slot, the league revealed only an NHL logo – a sign that a placeholder team had won the NHL’s draft lottery. There was a 24.5% chance of this.
The No. 5-seeded Penguins are heavy favorites against No. 12 Montreal in the qualifying round.
The Los Angeles Kings will pick No. 2 overall. The Ottawa Senators hold the No. 3 pick thanks to a trade with the San Jose Sharks. Detroit, Ottawa, Anaheim and Buffalo round out the top eight picks.
Because a placeholder team won the draft lottery, the NHL will hold what it’s calling “Phase 2” of the draft lottery following the qualifying round. All eight teams that exit the postseason early will have the same 12.5% chance of securing the top pick.
The Penguins have been lucky before when it comes to franchise-changing No. 1 overall picks, landing Mario Lemeiux in 1984 and Sidney Crosby 15 years ago.
Alexis Lafreniere is considered the consensus No. 1 overall pick. The two-time
CHL Player of the Year played his junior hockey with Rimouski Océanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the same club for whom Crosby played his junior hockey.
Pro basketball
New Orleans, led by Zion Williamson, will play in the first game when the NBA resumes its season July 30, taking on Utah at the Disney World complex near Orlando in the opener of a doubleheader. The second game of the nationally televised twinbill will pit the Los Angeles Lakers against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Nearly five months will have passed between games, but the league officially completed talks Friday with the players union on the terms for restarting the season, clearing the way for release of the 88 games to determine playoff seeding. Players will be tested daily. All the games are set to be played in a 16-day span ending Aug. 14. The NBA will be using three arenas at Disney, and, other than the twogame slate on opening night, four to seven games will be played each day.
• The NBA and union said 16 players tested positive for coronavirus in the first wave of mandatory tests done in preparation for the restart of the season. Those players were part of a pool of 302 tested
Tuesday. Tests are continuing for all 22 teams.
• The Los Angeles Sparks will be without Kristi Toliver and Chiney Ogwumike for the upcoming WNBA season, as both have decided to sit out to focus on their health.
Colleges
Oregon and Oregon State have agreed to drop the name “Civil War” for their rivalry games. The change comes amid ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. The football series between Oregon and Oregon State has been played 123 times and is the fifth-most contested rivalry in the country. This season’s game is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 28 in Corvallis. The men’s basketball series has been contested 354 times.
• Clemson athletics announced that 47 student-athletes have tested positive for the coronavirus to date, including 37 football players. Clemson also has had four staff members test positive. The 37 members of the football team marks nearly one-third of the 120 players on the roster.
• Morehouse College canceled its football and cross country seasons because of the pandemic. Morehouse President David A. Thomas said all scholarships will be honored. The historically Black college in Atlanta competes in NCAA Division II in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Tennis
The Davis Cup men’s competition has been canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic and will pick up again in 2021. Matches were scheduled for September, and the Davis Cup finals were set for November in Madrid.