If I told you yesterday morning that the NHL Draft Lottery would have a bizarre and stupid outcome, would you have believed me? Probably. I mean, it’s the NHL. They are experts at snatching embarrassment from the jaws of pride, but I don’t think anyone expected it would get this wacky, and that the process of the result itself would become the only story of the night.
The winner of the Draft Lottery broadcast live on TV last night was (drum roll)...
Team Placeholder wins the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery! pic.twitter.com/VJAvzfhLYR
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) June 27, 2020
Yes. “To Be Determined.” The NHL had a live TV broadcast special to announce that the winner of a lottery to determine who will select first in the NHL draft, presumptively to be Quebec’s teenage hockey phenom Alexis Lafreniere, will be decided at some future date.
They say all publicity is good publicity. They are wrong. This is bad publicity. Period. The sports sites that only rarely cover the league are all mocking it. It’s dumb and embarrassing.
There is even now an outcome where the Leafs could win this — though it would require flaking out of the play-in round against the Blue Jackets and missing the playoffs.
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At least we had the enjoyment of seeing the Ottawa Senators wind up with the disaster outcome, getting bumped down to make way for Team TBD.
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The league set themselves up for this truly embarrassing outcome.
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