Are you ready? Have you spent the proper amount of time on Tankathon? Have you gently hugged a photo of Jack Hughes to your chest today? Worked on your shrine to some arbitrary ping pong balls?
Anything for that No. 1 Overall Pick. pic.twitter.com/uSXE4bukg4
— LA Kings (@LAKings) April 9, 2019
The wait will be over soon: by the end of the night, we’ll know exactly where the Kings will be drafting come the summer, and we’ll know if that one dude who already got a Jack Hughes jersey was really jumping the gun or not.
In case you need a refresher, thanks to the Kings’ 30th place finish, they hold a 13.5% chance of being awarded the first overall draft pick. The lottery process is conducted for the top three picks.
The Kings will draft no lower than fifth, thanks to their finish.
The festivities get underway at 8:00 pm Eastern/5:00 pm Pacific time and the lottery itself, being stretched out into an hour-long show, will air on NBCSN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports.
Refresh this post frequently, as we’ll be liveblogging the events. Hang out in the comments to speculate, celebrate, or otherwise be terrified that somehow, some way, the Oilers are going to mess this up for everyone else.
5:00 p.m.: After a significant amount of time spent watching a car auction on NBCSN, we’ve already gotten our first glimpse of Jack Hughes. He’s wearing a light blue suit and doesn’t look like he’s going to throw up or anything, so that’s a positive so far.
But first, we need to sit through some talking heads telling us about the playoffs. You know, the thing we’re not going to. Also, even here, we cannot escape Keith Jones.
Does anyone have a line on Pierre McGuire? They’re not letting him near Hughes, right?
5:08 p.m.: The Sportsnet feed, highlighting the Calgary Flames, showed a clip of Adrian Kempe scoring against them, which might be the only time we get to see a nice Kings thing for a while, given that we have to sit through this playoff preview.
5:15 p.m.:
5:18 p.m.: Jack Hughes just suffered through an interview and I have three first impressions:
- Are we sure he’s actually old enough to be drafted?
- He sure is, uh, not very tall, huh?
- Quality bland hockey answers, he’ll fit in perfectly.
5:25 p.m.: Please, NBCSN, I would pay you to not have to hear about the Vegas Golden Knights.
5:35 p.m.: We’ve been introduced to the hockey men representing their teams, including Luc Robitaille, who is probably concerned about his wife Stacia’s promise earlier:
…or he won’t be getting lucky at home. 😉
— Stacia Robitaille (@StaciaRR) April 9, 2019
5:42 p.m.: WELP
Kings draft fifth. WHO DIDN’T SET UP THEIR JACK HUGHES SHRINE TO THE PRECISE SPECIFICATIONS REQUIRED?