Gorton on Winning 2020 Draft Lottery: 'Luck Was On Our Side Tonight'

As eight ping pong balls swirled around and around in the lottery simulator and one suddenly shot up toward the top of the chute, everyone pulling for the New York Rangers was thinking the same thing - including General Manager Jeff Gorton.

Is that ours?

"I'm watching, I'm watching, and I see every single logo with the ball spinning around but ours, and I started getting nervous," Gorton said on Monday night, following the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery. "Then, when you see the [final] two, you're begging to see the logo."

The winning ball sat there, its logo turned away from the camera. The chute was opened. The ball was plucked out and revealed, and there it was: The New York Rangers had won the NHL Draft Lottery for the first time in the modern draft era.

"Once I saw [ours] come out on top," Gorton said, "there's a lot of different emotions you go through, going back to the letter we wrote a couple years ago and talking about our rebuild and trying to do things the right way - but we knew we needed luck.

"And luck is on our side tonight."

Less than one week ago, the Rangers found themselves departing from the bubble in Toronto as the first team to lose in the Stanley Cup qualifying round, the first team to see its postseason dreams end.

What a difference a week makes.

"We're pretty happy with that, a few days after going out of the bubble and and walking away pretty upset," Gorton said. "It's a funny game sometimes, the good and bad. Obviously, this is a great feeling."

Monday night's victory - which will afford the Rangers the first overall selection in the 2020 Draft, tentatively scheduled for October - doesn't completely erase the sting of last week's defeat.

But as Gorton looks to turn the page toward the next chapter and focus on what is to come for his young team, it certainly helps.

"Leaving the bubble first - it hurts," Gorton said. "There were still seven teams in the hotel, and you're walking by them all and they're all getting coffee outside there, and you're getting on your bus. Usually, you lose, you walk out of the rink, you fly home. This one year, you're right in there with all these teams, and you're the first one out.

"As we flew home, it was a tough feeling to lose like we did and to be swept. We've been going through that for a few days, trying to figure out what's next and what we need to change, and I think that this is huge excitement for an organization, to get the first pick any year, and I think this one's even even more special."

The Rangers are armed with 10 selections heading into the draft, two of which will come in the first round. Their second first-round selection will be the Carolina's first-rounder.

Last year, Gorton preached the importance of stocking up on picks, not only to provide flexibility heading into the draft itself, but to replenish the organization's all important prospect pool. Accumulating as many picks as possible has been a key component of the Rangers' retooling strategy ever since announcing their intentions to rebuild the roster in February 2018.

The early chips fell at the February 2018 Trade Deadline. There were more in the summer of 2018, and even more at the 2019 deadline.

Then, it seemed, things really started clicking.

When Gorton set off for Toronto for an all-important 2019 Draft Lottery and earned the stroke of luck that would eventually spur the Rangers' roster retooling into high gear, he had a good luck charm with him: the badge belonging to the late Steven McDonald, an NYPD detective who was shot and critically injured in the line of duty in July 1986 and passed away in January 2017.

"I have Steven McDonald's badge with me that his wife Patti Ann let us use again," Gorton said on Monday night. "Last year, it worked, so we reached out again. As you know, huge Rangers fans, and we have an award named after him that goes to the hardest-working guy on our team. And it's fitting. Good luck charms - I don't know, I'm starting to believe in them, and I'm really excited they let us use it.

"We're 2-for-2 with it, so really excited to to have it with me and have it work again."

Last year, the Rangers made eight selections in the draft. They moved up four spots in the lottery to select Kaapo Kakko second overall. It was the first of many dominos to fall in Gorton's roster-rebuilding efforts: Post-lottery, he dealt a second-round pick to Carolina for the rights to defenseman Adam Fox, who was signed to an entry-level deal shortly thereafter. Then, days before the 2019 Draft, he traded one of New York's two first-rounders to Winnipeg for shut-down defenseman Jacob Trouba.

This year, the strategy is no different. Draft picks are still critical to the process of improving the roster. And that No. 1 overall pick - the ultimate prize - certainly puts the icing on the cake.

"When you go through anything like this, you're trying to gather as much talent as you can," Gorton said. "Obviously if you look through some of the best players in the league - some of the star players in this league - it's not a huge secret where the teams are getting them, right? It's lottery picks. It's the very high-end parts of the draft. That's generally where you get your players, and it's hard. The opportunity for us to do that is huge."

Two short years ago, when Gorton and the Rangers brass made their intentions clear to rebuild the Rangers into a contender for years to come, it was important to them to do it the right way. They wanted to do it through homegrown talent, through drafting and developing their own players. They were willing to make a splash or two on the trade market and in free agency, but only where it made sense.

Now, looking back through the last 30-plus months - at the tough moments and the euphoric ones - Gorton can say with certainty that he and his staff have done precisely what they set out to do.

"We're trying to do things the right way right - trying to solidify the goaltending, trying to get some good young defense pieces, and now, we've been lucky in the last couple of years to do what we've done with the lottery," Gorton said. "I feel like things are coming together. There's a lot of work left to be done and we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but I think it's a good night for Ranger fans to be excited. It's never happened before to the Rangers. It's the first time ever we're picking first. That's a long time."

Now, the work begins. Now, it's time to put together a draft board, because even after they select first overall, the Rangers have nine additional selections to make. Now comes the preparation and the formulation of a draft list and myriad interviews with players, parents, coaches and acquaintances.

But for one night, Gorton said, let's all let this sink in: The Rangers are picking No. 1.

"For tonight," Gorton said, "let's let the Rangers fans be happy about winning the lottery."

If you like being #1, then the first thing you should do is secure your spot for next season with a Rangers ticket deposit. For a refundable $250/seat deposit, you'll get priority access to 2020-21 Season Ticket Plans so you can see firsthand just how bright the future is for the Rangers. Video: Rangers win top pick for 2020 NHL Draft