The Detroit Red Wings will get a good player in the 2020 NHL draft, but not the most coveted one.
Continuing a trend begun when they entered the draft lottery in 2017 after a 25-season streak of making the playoffs, the Wings were pushed back in Friday’s draft lottery. They entered with 18.5% odds of winning the first pick because they finished last in the standings, but landed the fourth pick.
The lottery was revamped to address the truncated season necessitated by COVID-19. No date has been set for the draft, but under the league’s tentative “return to play” scenario, it would not happen until after the 2020 playoffs, so it would be sometime in fall.