Hoping to win the lottery is not generally much of a plan.
The Kings officially put an end to their ill-fated 2007-08 season by securing the second pick in the 2008 entry draft at Monday's NHL draft lottery in New York.
With a record of 32-43-7, the Kings finished 29th out of 30 in the overall NHL standings. Their 71 points matched the point total of 30th-place Tampa Bay, but the Lightning had one fewer win than the Kings, giving it the top odds (48.2 percent) of securing the No. 1 pick.
The odds played out in Tampa Bay's favor, and the Lightning is likely to use the top pick in June to select forward Steven Stamkos, a consensus NHL superstar in the making. That will leave the Kings the chance to choose among three highly touted defensemen -- Zach Bogosian, Drew Doughty or Alex Pietrangelo -- projected to be selected within the top five picks.
