Rangers move to front of NHL draft lottery

The New York Rangers won the second phase of the NHL draft lottery, giving them a shot at selecting winger Alexis Lafreniere.

The Rangers were among eight teams that lost in the qualifying round of the playoffs with a chance to claim quite a consolation prize Monday night. The Rangers have the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since 1965 when they selected Andre Veilleux.

The league was forced to make a lot of changes after the COVID-19 pandemic paused the season and the lottery was turned into a two-phase process.

The league's bottom seven teams had their seasons concluded March 12. Those teams also ended up not winning the lottery in June. The Los Angeles Kings landed the No. 2 pick overall.

The winning placeholder team, which became the Rangers, got the top pick despite a 12.5% chance. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the process was fair because the eight teams that were in the exMiller panded playoffs would have had a chance to win the lottery if the pandemic didn't alter the season.

Ottawa ended up with the third selection overall as part of the 2018 Erik Karlsson trade with San Jose along with the fifth pick overall. The league-worst Detroit Red Wings dropped to No. 4 in the first phase of the lottery.

The final 16 spots in the draft will be tied to postseason results.

■ The Hockey Hall of Fame postponed its 2020 inductions because of the coronavirus pandemic. T he ceremony was to have taken place Nov. 16 in Toronto.

The 2020 class was announced in June and featured forward Jarome Iginla, winger Marian Hossa, defensemen Kevin Lowe and Doug Wilson, Canadian women’s goaltender Kim St. Pierre and longtime GM Ken Holland.

The most likely scenario is to have the ceremony in November 2021, either by waiving the 2021 election or combining the 2020 and 2021 classes.

NFL: The Patriots and RB Lamar agreed to a one-year contract, pending a physical, ESPN reported. The Patriots were eyeing another RB after No. 1 option Sony Michel had offseason foot surgery and opened camp on the active/physically unable to perform list, and valuable backup Brandon Bolden opted out of the season.

Miller, 29, missed last season after he tore his ACL in the Texans’ third preseason game.

Soccer: Manchester United needed an extra-time penalty from Bruno Fernandes to scrape into the Europa League semifinals after beating Copenhagen 1-0. In sweltering heat, United’s young team controlled the lion’s share of possession but had a hard time creating clear chances until Andreas Bjelland brought down Anthony Martial in the penalty area. Fernandes blasted the ball past goalkeeper Karl-Johan Johnsson to give United the 95th-minute lead. In other quarterfinal action, Romelu Lukaku scored one goal and set up another to lift Inter Milan over Bayer Leverkusen 2-1. Nicolo Barella scored for Inter in the 15th minute.