nhl draft

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 …

The day before they could have been starting the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Rangers will find out if they received a huge silver lining instead. The second phase of the NHL Draft Lottery is now set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 10, with the No. 1 pick still up for …

This might have represented the best of all worlds in the three-dimensional universe in which the Rangers live. For: 1) Being summarily swept out of the qualifying round, 1-2-3, lickety-split by the Candy Canes of Carolina does not erase the significant strides the 2019-20 Rangers took in transforming from lottery-fodder to playoff relevance. But: 2) …

So if the Rangers lose their qualifying round to the Hurricanes, they will have a 12.5 percent chance of selecting first overall in the NHL draft and bringing Rimouski left winger Alexis Lafreniere to Broadway. Yes, folks, there will be a Phase 2 of the NHL draft lottery after Friday’s Phase 1 ended with a …

The NHL’s return-to-play format is officially set. Whether the 24 teams involved get to use it depends on how the next steps unfold. Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Tuesday that the NHL’s regular season is officially over and, if and when play resumes, it will be in a 24-team playoff in two hub cities, with dates …

So what now of the Stigmatized Seven, those clubs who couldn’t play up to an NHL .500 level before the league entered its pause phase on March 12 and have thus been deemed unworthy of an invite to the league’s imagined 24-team Stanley Cup tournament? What about the fate, primarily as applies to the draft …