Mystery team wins NHL Draft Lottery

It’s happening, folks! Finally, we have some hockey related news! Things feel... almost normal? Well, as normal as possible when, with all of their contingencies and rules, that the draft lottery looks... like that.

But anyway! Yes, the draft lottery was tonight! Let’s recap the happenings, in case you missed it. The order for the first eight picks in the 2020 draft are as follows:

1. Placeholder

2. Los Angeles Kings

3. Ottawa Senators (via San Jose)

4. Detroit Red Wings

5. Ottawa Senators

6. Anaheim Ducks

7. New Jersey Devils

8. Buffalo Sabres

So what does this mean? We’re going to have a second phase of the lottery after the play-in round, in which each of the eight teams eliminated therein will have an equal chance of being selected to have that first overall pick. Which, truly, is the most chaotic outcome possible for this whole experiment (and isn’t it just delicious?).

None of this is relevant to the Flyers directly, of course, because they’re playing in the round robin and not the play-in round, and as such cannot be eliminated and made eligible to win that first overall pick. So we Flyers fans get to just sit back and watch the world burn.