NHL: Rangers Win Draft Lottery, Alexis Lafreniere Sweepstakes

It is the 12.5 Percent Solution that represents an accelerated path to the future without compromising the program. In a tight half-hour telecast fraught with drama produced by an NHL that is hitting all of the marks, the Rangers recorded the biggest August victory in franchise history.

Alexis Lafreniere, the projected franchise left wing out of the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic, is in line to pull on the Blueshirt as the No. 1 selection in the 2020 Entry Draft tentatively scheduled for Oct. 6 following the luckiest bounce of a pingpong ball since Tex Rickard put his hockey team in the Garden in 1926.

Only once, in the 1965 amateur draft in which only 11 players were chosen because the best of the best prospects had already committed to NHL teams, have the Rangers chosen first overall. The fellow chosen with that selection, Andre Veilleux, never played an NHL game. The universal draft was inaugurated in 1969.

NHL Draft lottery results 2020

1. New York Rangers
2. Los Angeles Kings
3. Ottawa Senators (via San Jose Sharks)
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 (via Toronto Maple Leafs)
14. Edmonton Oilers
15. Pittsburgh Penguins