The Rangers were in with a chance to nab one of the top picks at the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery, but the bounce of the ping-pong balls was unkind to New York on Tuesday night as they fell two spots.

The Blueshirts, who were among the finalists for the first and second overall selections, will instead get the No. 5 pick in next month’s draft.

The Devils (2.5 percent) remained in place at pick No. 12, as did the Islanders (2 percent) at No 13.

The Rangers entered with the third-best odds, 11.5 percent, of landing the top pick, and were leapfrogged by the Toronto Maple Leafs (fifth-best, 8.5 percent) and San Jose Sharks (ninth-best, 5 percent) as they claimed the top two picks.

Vancouver and Chicago then fell to picks three and four, respectively, and locked everyone else in place.

The Islanders, who won the lottery last year after jumping from having the 10th-best odds, and selected Matthew Schaefer.

On Tuesday, Schaefer was named one of three finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy awarded to the player "most proficient in his first year of competition."

The 18-year-old defenseman played in all 82 games this season and tallied 59 points (23 goals, 36 assists) with a plus-13 rating while averaging 24:41 time on the ice. He tallied 111 blocks and dished out 40 hits.

Montreal Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov and Anaheim Ducks forward Beckett Sennecke are the other two finalists.

The Rangers were a surprise winner of the 2020 lottery and selected Alexis Lafreniere.

The year prior, the Devils jumped from three to one and grabbed Jack Hughes, the same year the Blueshirts jumped from six to two and took Kaapo Kakko.

Popular in the Community