Kings rise, Wings fall, No. 1 selection still up in the air
A team that loses in the NHL’s qualifying round won the draft lottery Friday night and will get the first overall pick.
As part of the league’s revamped lottery that comes with a 24-team playoff format, several teams that could resume the season had a chance at one of the top three picks. That’s exactly what happened, and the league will need to redo the lottery for that selection after the play-in round.
Only then will presumptive top prospect Alexis Lafreniere find out his likely destination.
“Still not drafted, so we’ll still have to wait a little bit,” Lafreniere said.
The Los Angeles Kings won the second pick and the Ottawa Senators the third with the San Jose Sharks’ selection from the 2018 Erik Karlsson trade.
The Detroit Red Wings dropped to the fourth pick despite finishing last in the NHL and 23 points behind the 30th-place Senators. Detroit had a league-low 17 wins in its 71-game season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Senators, who have the third and fifth picks, are just the fifth team with two top-five picks over the past 25 years.
The 6-foot-1, 200-poundLafreniere had 114 goals and 297 points in 173 games with Rimouski in the Quebec Major Junior League. He also captained Canada’s gold-medal team and
earned MVP honors at the world junior championships this year.
The lottery took place at NHL Network studios in Secaucus, N.J. NO QUARANTINE FOR PLAYERS DURING TRAINING
CAMPS >> Deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed the league and NHLPA are not considering putting teams in quarantined “bubbles” when training camps are scheduled to open July 10. Instead, players are being instructed to stay home when not at the rink, with the hope that frequent testing and health protocols will prevent any outbreaks before, hopefully, games resume in two “hub” cities in late July.
The league and players are still working to finalize a return-to-play agreement that would entail a 24team playoff to award the Stanley Cup. It’s understood that players, coaches and staff would be quarantined from the general public for the duration of the playoffs and tested regularly.
Two weeks away from the scheduled start of camps and less than a month from when games might begin, some players still have questions.
“Obviously health and safety is the biggest,” Montreal goaltender Carey Price said. “Being able to come to a situation where you don’t have to worry about contracting COVID-19 is huge. To ‘bubble’ the players and feel safe in your work environment is going to be probably the most paramount.”