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Oh-for-three-and-out, the Rangers are still searching for the first August victory in franchise history. Emerging with the first-overall selection in the 2020 Entry Draft by winning Monday’s lottery drawing would represent a propitious time to do so. It is the 12.5-percent solution for the qualifying-round losers in the ongoing Stanley Cup tournament, each one with …
Oh-for-three-and-out, the Rangers are still searching for the first August victory in franchise history. Emerging with the first-overall selection in the 2020 Entry Draft by winning Monday’s lottery drawing would represent a propitious time to do so.
It is the 12.5-percent solution for the qualifying-round losers in the ongoing Stanley Cup tournament, each one with that same one-in-eight chance to claim the first-overall selection and top-ranked winger Alexis Lafreniere of QMJHL’s Rimouski.
The Rangers, who have not had the first pick in the draft since 1965, will pick first, 10th or 11th. If they win the lottery, they pick first. If Winnipeg or Minnesota wins, the Blueshirts will go 10th. If any of the other five entrants — Pittsburgh, the loser of Sunday’s Columbus-Toronto decisive Game 5, Florida, Edmonton, and Nashville — wins it, the Rangers will select 11th.
There will be a good player available to the Blueshirts, who finished 18th-overall in the standings, though unless it’s Lafreniere, the selection is extremely unlikely to make the NHL next season. Patience is critical here for management.
In the 10-11 range, candidates would include Wisconsin sophomore center Dylan Holloway, OHL Ottawa right wing Jack Quinn, WHL Portland forward Seth Jarvis, Finnish center Anton Lundell, and, if he should slip, OHL Saginaw center Cole Perfetti. This is not an all-inclusive list. It would seem unlikely the team would select a defenseman.
The Blueshirts, who have used five of their six first-round picks on Europeans the last three drafts, will also get the later first-round pick from Carolina or Toronto. That pick is likely to be between 20 and 31. Owning a pair of picks, the Rangers might investigate bundling and moving up.
The last time the Rangers entered a lottery with at least an equal chance to claim the first-overall pick was 2005, when the NHL staged a weighted 30-team sweepstakes following the canceled 2004-05 season.
The Blueshirts, Penguins, Sabres and Blue Jackets each had a 6.3-percent chance to win based on having missed the playoffs the previous three years without a first-overall selection.
The Penguins won the lottery and selected Sidney Crosby while the Rangers somehow wound up in the 16th slot. But the Blueshirts pulled off a trade with the then-Thrashers to move up to 12, where they selected Marc Staal.
The draft will be conducted between the end of the Cup final and the start of free agency. It is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 6.
