Buffalo Sabres: 3 takeaways from intriguing 2020 NHL Draft Lottery

2) Senators and Red Wings suffer most on Friday night

On some levels, the Buffalo Sabres can appreciate how the Detroit Red Wings feel following the draft lottery. After all, on two occasions in 2014 and 2015, the Sabres missed out on the first overall pick despite finishing both seasons with the worst record in the league.

At the same time however, even the Swords never suffered quite as much bad luck as the Red Wings endured on Friday night. By the end of the proceedings, Detroit had dropped all the way down to fourth spot.

In some respects the Red Wings almost expected to fall down in the draft order, just because of the way the odds are stacked. (Even with the best odds of 18.5 percent, this leaves a 81.5 percent chance someone else would get the top pick.) However, to drop out of the top three altogether is extremely unfortunate.

Talking of unfortunate, this tag can also be applied to the Ottawa Senators. Due to having the second and third spot entering Friday night, they actually had a better chance of winning the first overall pick ahead of the Red Wings, with combined odds of 25 percent.

In fact, the Senators could have had an outcome where they ended the evening with the first and second selections in the 2020 draft. Ultimately though, they found themselves dropping down to third and fifth spot.

Yes, Ottawa managed to hold onto their third overall pick, while also avoiding their worst case scenario of dropping to the fifth and sixth selections. Regardless, they will understandably still have some frustration with how things played out.