Kings move up to No. 2 pick in NHL Draft Lottery

The Los Angeles Kings moved up into the No. 2 pick at the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery on Friday, which could pave a quicker path back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Kings (29-36-5, .457 points percentage) entered the First Phase of the lottery with the fourth-best odds (9.5 percent) to win the No. 1 pick after finishing 14th in the Western Conference, ahead of only the San Jose Sharks. Los Angeles will miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a second straight season and for the fourth time in six seasons since winning the Stanley Cup in 2014.

"Hopefully this does speed it up because of the caliber and the adjustment of that player in the NHL," Kings general manager Rob Blake said. "We knew we were between 1 and 7. It's the top three players, and then we had a group from 4-8 that were very similar; different positions but (close) ranking-wise and the way we had it. For us to be able to move up and get into that top three was important."

Among the options for the Kings are center Quinton Byfield and left wing Tim Stuetzle. But Blake would not rule out drafting a defenseman, with Jamie Drysdale and Jake Sanderson the top-rated players at the position.

Left wing Alexis Lafreniere is expected to be the No. 1 pick, which was assigned to a placeholder team competing in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers and will be determined by the Second Phase of the lottery.

"It's heavily forward in the top of the rankings by far, but it's all open for discussion," Blake said. "I take a lot of pride in what Mark (Yannetti, director of amateur scouting) and his staff can do and their capabilities and merging their views, their opinions, the analytics and all the information they take in, and ultimately coming out with what they say is the best for our organization."

Whoever the Kings draft will be part of a rebuilding effort that will complement forward Anze Kopitar, defenseman Drew Doughty and goalie Jonathan Quick.

"Our turnover and our need is throughout our lineup," Blake said. "With the veterans we have coming back and understanding their ages and where they're headed in their careers, it opens a lot of avenues, whether it's wingers or forwards or [defensemen]."

The Kings played 11 rookies this season and could have more younger players fighting for spots in the lineup next season after they selected nine players in the 2019 NHL Draft, including forward Alex Turcotte (No. 5) and defenseman Tobias Bjornfot (No. 22).

Bjornfot played the first three games of the season with Los Angeles before being sent down to Ontario of the American Hockey League, where he scored 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 44 games. Turcotte agreed to terms on a three-year, entry-level contract on March 11 after playing his freshman season at the University of Wisconsin.

"From an evolvement of youth and the number of picks throughout the last couple years that will start turning pro and start signing, we'll inject that into the lineup," Blake said. "I think we've planned that this would be the scenario coming into this year with the amount of picks (11 in the 2020 draft) and similar to what it was last year. ... We knew that these two years were very key not only in the quality of high picks, but also the quantity of picks."

That allows the Kings the luxury of selecting a player independent of whether he could make the jump to the NHL right away

"I wouldn't say it's a must," Blake said. "That will be determined through camps and projections going forward, when the draft takes place. There's a lot of different circumstances that can come into play. I would say that the higher picks or the higher-rated players in the draft have the capabilities of doing that. We'll have to determine that at the right time."

This will be the fourth time the Kings have had the No. 2 pick in the draft, and the two previous times worked out well.

"The last time we got the No. 2 pick it was Drew Doughty (in 2008) and we ended up winning the Cup with him (in 2012 and 2014)," Kings president Luc Robitaille said. "And the other one was (forward) Jimmy Carson (in 1986), and we traded Jimmy for Wayne Gretzky (in 1988)."

The Kings also had the No. 2 pick in the 1981 NHL Draft and selected forward Doug Smith, who played five of his nine NHL seasons for Los Angeles.

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