Home / News / The Pittsburgh Penguins did not win the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery. (The New York Rangers did.)

The Pittsburgh Penguins did not win the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery. (The New York Rangers did.)

By Ian Oland

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August 10, 2020 6:29 pm

The New York Rangers have won the Alexis Lafrenière sweepstakes and will have the first overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.

The Rangers were one of eight teams that lost during the NHL’s Stanley Cup Qualifying round and had a chance to win the first overall pick. All eight teams had their logo placed on one ping pong ball and a ping pong ball machine randomly selected the winner. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was present to announce the winner.

The Draft Lottery loss extends the pain for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators, and Toronto Maple Leafs, who all suffered difficult upsets during the play-in round.

Here are the first 15 picks of the draft.

Lafrenière reacted to the Rangers winning the lottery minutes after the announcement.

Lafrenière will join a talented New York Rangers team that includes Hart Trophy finalist Artemi Panarin; the fifth-best goal scorer in the NHL, Mika Zibanejad (41 goals); and 2019 second overall pick, Kaapo Kakko.

More from the NHL:

NEW YORK (August 10, 2020) — The New York Rangers have won the first overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft as a result of Phase 2 of the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery conducted this evening at NHL Network’s Secaucus, N.J., studio.

The eight teams that did not advance from the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers participated in Phase 2 of the Lottery, which consisted of a single drawing to assign the first overall selection for the 2020 NHL Draft. All participants had the same probability of being selected (12.5%) and were represented in the lottery machine by one ball with their team logo. The machine randomly selected one ball, which belonged to the Rangers.

This marks the second time in franchise history the Rangers have been selected in the NHL Draft Lottery. They won the Second Draw in 2019, moving from 6th to 2nd, and drafted forward Kaapo Kakko.

The Rangers have made the first overall selection once in NHL Draft history (1965, Andre Veilleux) but will have the opportunity to do so for the first time since the universal draft was adopted in 1969 (all juniors of qualifying age eligible for selection).

The results of Phase 1 of the Draft Lottery, held on June 26, required that Phase 2 be conducted. In the First Draw of Phase 1 to determine the first overall selection, one of the eight ‘placeholders’ – ‘Team E’, in the No. 12 position – was selected. Under the League’s Return to Play Plan, the selection of a ‘placeholder’ team (Nos. 8-15) in any of the three Phase 1 Draws for the first, second and third overall picks, respectively, would require a Draw for the corresponding selection be made in Phase 2 among only the eight Qualifying Round teams that failed to advance.

With the NHL Draft Lottery completed, the remaining selections in the Top 15 are assigned to the 12 participating teams in Phase 1 and 2 that did not win a draw, in inverse order of their points percentages at the time of the season’s pause.

Accordingly, the order of selection for the first 15 drafting positions in the First Round, only, of the 2020 NHL Draft is:

1. New York Rangers
2. Los Angeles Kings
3. Ottawa Senators (from San Jose)
4. Detroit Red Wings
5. Ottawa Senators
6. Anaheim Ducks
7. New Jersey Devils
8. Buffalo Sabres
9. Minnesota Wild
10. Winnipeg Jets
11. Nashville Predators
12. Florida Panthers
13. Carolina Hurricanes (from Toronto)
14. Edmonton Oilers
15. Pittsburgh Penguins (optional to Minnesota)

The remaining 16 selections in Round 1 of the 2020 NHL Draft (Nos. 16-31) will be determined by the results of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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