To the loser go the spoils … at least when it comes to the NHL draft
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore all dreaming of Rasmus Dahlin.”
— Words on the National Hockey League’s Statue Of Draft Liberty
It was a moment of blissful self-unawareness that makes the NHL so quaint.
Commissioner Gary Bettman’s wind therapist, deputy commissioner Bill Daly, was hosting the annual draft lottery Saturday night before and during Game 2 of the Las Vegas/San Jose Western Conference semifinal. Arrayed behind him on the dais were representatives of the NHL’s huddled masses, the teams that are concentrated on the draft night in June rather than a playoff run in April or May.