Hockey twitter was amusing last night after the draft lottery results, with "Placeholder E" winning the #1 pick.
So the eight teams that are officially in (Boston, Tampa, Washington, Philly, St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas, and Dallas) can't get the first overall pick, and neither can the seven teams that are officially out (Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo, NJ, LA, and Anaheim. SJ already pulled themselves out of contention by sending their first to Ottawa in the Karlsson deal).
Of the eligible sixteen teams, it could go to:
- Pittsburgh, who finished seventh overall in the league
- Arizona, which would really cement Taylor Hall's reputation as the "Lottery Whisperer"
- Toronto, who a lot of people think the league rigs things in their favor, despite having done nothing of substance in 50+ years. Carolina does technically hold this pick as a result of the Marleau buyout, but it is lottery protected
- Edmonton, because what's one more after Hall, the Nuge, and McJesus. I'll include Yakopov for completeness, but man, what a whiff that was
At least this will give the sportswriters something to chew on until the puck actually drops... whenever the heck that is.