NHL Draft Lottery: Oh well, it was practically impossible anyway

After bucking the odds for two straight years, the New York Rangers did not win the NHL Draft Lottery.  Their odds were minimal so it would have been a miracle if they had won.  It will leave the Rangers with the 15th pick in the first round if they do not trade it away.

The Rangers went into the lottery with a 2.1% chance of getting a top two pick and only a 1% chance of getting the first overall pick.   There were no surprises in the lottery as the only team to move up was Seattle who got the second pick ahead of Anaheim, the only team to drop down.

Who got the top pick

The first pick will go to the Buffalo Sabres for the second time in four years.  This was the fourth time that the Sabres went into the lottery with the worst record and they lost out the first two times.  In 2014 they dropped from first to second, taking Sam Reinhart while the Florida Panthers selected Aaron Ekblad.   The bitter loss was in 2015 when they lost out to Edmonton who selected Connor McDavid while they had to “settle” for Jack Eichel.

The Anaheim Ducks had the second worst record in the NHL, but will pick third.  They’ve never had the top pick, but they did luck out in the special draft in 2005 when they were awarded the second pick in the draft lottery. They missed out on Sidney Crosby, but did draft Bobby Ryan second overall despite having a better record in the 2003-04 than seven other teams including the Rangers.

Because of expansion, the Seattle Kraken and New Jersey Devils shared the third best odds of winning the lottery. Good news for Ranger fans is that the Devils did not move up and will pick fourth overall, exactly where they were supposed to based on the standings.

Boooorrring

The draft was televised live on NBCSN and the NHL Network.  There was little to no drama as NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly revealed the picks from 15th to 1st overall and the first 12 teams he listed were in the exact order of finish.  It wasn’t until he announced that Anaheim would pick third overall that there was any drama as it meant that Seattle had moved up and the only question was who would get the top pick.

The only levity was provided by the images of the general managers as the results were announced.  Thankfully, Chris Drury went first as the Rangers had the best record of the contenders.  It was a bit of a surprise to see John Davidson sitting with Columbus GM Jarmo Kekäläinen.  Steve Yzerman was reportedly quite upset when the Rangers stole Alexis Lafrenière last year and he didn’t look very pleased this year either when the Red Wings didn’t move up.

Anaheim’s GM Bob Murray looked visibly pained when the Kraken moved past the Ducks while Ron Francis of Seattle did his best to avoid looking too happy.  Meanwhile, Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams looked pleased as punch as it was a bit of good news for the Sabres.  It means he doesn’t have to talk about Jack Eichel at least for a while, but he needs to be reminded that despite having four top two picks in seven years the Sabres are ten years and counting from their last playoff appearance.