Placeholder team wins NHL draft lottery

Alexis Lafreniere will have to wait a little longer to find out where he’ll start his NHL career.

One of eight placeholder spots beat the odds to secure the No. 1 pick in the league’s draft lottery Friday, meaning a second draw is required later this summer following the qualifying round of the NHL’s return-to-play plan.

“We’ll still have to wait a little bit,” Lafreniere, the presumptive top pick, said during the live television broadcast after the order was unveiled.

The placeholders, who represent the eight teams that will eventually lose out in the NHL’s qualifying round, had a combined 24.5 per cent chance of selecting first. The placeholder team that won the lottery had a 2.5 per cent chance.

The eliminated clubs from eight separate best-of-five playin series will each have a 12.5 per cent chance of securing the top pick in the second phase of the lottery.

The Los Angeles Kings moved up from fourth to pick second, while the Ottawa Senators, who had the best combined odds of picking first at 25 per cent because they also owned the San Jose Sharks’ selection, will select third and fifth.

“It’s an interesting night when you’re coming into this, because you know all the odds and the different scenarios,” Kings general manager Rob Blake said. “We were sitting fourth coming into this and we finished second, so we’re excited about that opportunity.”

The Detroit Red Wings, who had the best singular odds to pick first at 18.5, fell to No. 4 after losing all three lotteries for the top-3 picks.

“Realistically, I’m prepared to be sitting here today not talking about the first pick,” Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman said. “I’m not really surprised.”

After seeing a placeholder get the No. 1 spot, Senators GM Pierre Dorion said: “We all knew this could happen.”

The league was originally scheduled to hold the first round of the 2020 draft Friday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a pause to the season back in March.

Lafreniere — a winger for the Rimouski Oceanic and NHL Central Scouting’s top-ranked North American skater — is expected to go first overall when the draft is eventually held at a later date.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly revealed the draft order from the league’s television studio in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The Anaheim Ducks, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres round out the top eight in what is the most complicated lottery in NHL history.

Apart from its own pick, 30thranked Ottawa also possesses San Jose’s selection as part of the blockbuster trade for star defenceman Erik Karlsson in September 2018.

San Jose was 29th in the overall standings when the league went on hiatus.