Capitals Benefit if Kings Land No. 1 Pick

The Kings can avoid a public relations blunder today if they can somehow manage to lose the NHL draft lottery in New York.

But should the Kings’ 10.9% chance of landing the No. 1 pick come through, it is going to seem like a gaffe no matter how logically General Manager Sam McMaster can argue that he’d still make the trade that sent the team’s first-round pick to the Washington Capitals last summer in a deal for forward Dimitri Khristich and goaltender Byron Dafoe.

Back then, the Kings planned on making the playoffs this season, which would have meant they--or Washington--wouldn’t have a shot at picking first.

But after finishing with the fourth-worst record in the league, the Kings are one of five teams with a chance to draft first overall--but they’ve already given away their first- and fourth-round picks for Khristich, who proved to be their leading scorer, and Dafoe, who started more than half of the Kings’ games.

“I’m not nervous at all,” said McMaster, who won’t attend the drawing since Washington already has officially taken the Kings’ place. “We analyzed everything that could possibly happen when we made the trade, and we’re extremely pleased we picked up Khristich and Dafoe.

“I guess you never want to be involved in trading the first overall pick, perception-wise. But having said that, I still would not trade Dimitri Khristich and Byron Dafoe for any player in this draft.”

Washington General Manager David Poile sees the drawing as a not-completely-unexpected opportunity to improve on the deal.

“I think we thought it was a possibility, but you never count on that,” Poile said. “We did think L.A. was probably close, a team on the bubble to make the playoffs.”

The draft isn’t considered particularly strong, and there’s no dominant prospect.

Ottawa has a 45% chance of keeping the No. 1 pick, and would be expected to take defenseman Chris Phillips of the Prince Albert Raiders in the Western Hockey League. San Jose, the New York Islanders and Dallas are the other teams with a shot at No. 1.

The Mighty Ducks, scheduled to pick ninth, have only a 1.6% chance of moving up to fifth and a less than a 1% chance of dropping to 10th.

Long odds have come through before, though. The Kings had only a 4.2% chance of winning the lottery last year, but they did, moving up from seventh to third.