The National Hockey League held its draft lottery on Friday. Remarkably, the team that will get the number one pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft will be a team that will lose in the best of five qualifying round leading up to the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The odds of a team from the qualifying round getting the first overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft was 24.5% according to prohockeyrumors.com. The Detroit Red Wings had the greatest odds of getting the first overall pick at 18.5%, as they were by far the worst team in the NHL this season. However, they will only get the fourth overall pick.
The Los Angeles Kings will have the second overall pick. They will be followed by the Ottawa Senators, who will get the third and fifth overall picks. The Senators get the third pick because of the trade they made with the San Jose Sharks for Erik Karlsson on September 13, 2018. The Anaheim Ducks get the sixth pick, the New Jersey Devils are at number seven and the Buffalo Sabres are at number eight.
The Kings were definitely a winner on Thursday, as they moved from number four to number two, but let us not kid ourselves, the winner of the NHL Draft Lottery will be whoever gets the number one pick, and Alexis Lafreniere, the Canadian Hockey League player of the year and the star left winger of the Rimouski Oceanic.
The eight qualifying round matches will see the Toronto Maple Leafs face the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Islanders against the Florida Panthers, the Carolina Hurricanes against the New York Rangers, the Calgary Flames against the Winnipeg Jets, the Edmonton Oilers against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Nashville Predators against the Arizona Coyotes, and the Minnesota Wild against the Vancouver Canucks. Each loser from the eight series will get a 12.5% of getting the first overall pick.
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