American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
If only for a brief moment, Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams could put aside concerns over captain Jack Eichel's future, an ongoing coaching search and memories of a frustrating season, to celebrate an actual victory.
That it came at the expense of former Carolina Hurricanes teammate and fellow GM, Ron Francis of the NHL expansion Seattle Kraken, made Adams feel even better.
Buffalo won the NHL draft lottery on Wednesday in what became a showdown between a Sabres team in need of a fresh start, and a Seattle expansion franchise preparing to embark on its first season. Adams was aware of who he was up against upon seeing Francis pictured next to him on a split-screen as the lottery winner was announced .
"My heard was racing," Adams said. "And there was Ronnie Francis, a good friend and former teammate of mine. It's the only time I've ever beaten Ron. So I've got to be excited about that."
The Sabres have the No. 1 pick for the fourth time in franchise history and second in three years. It marks what can become the start of a turnaround for a team that finished last in the overall standings for the fourth time since 2013-14.
Seattle, meantime, can get, ahem, Kraken after landing the No. 2 selection by jumping ahead of Anaheim. The Ducks finished 30th in the overall standings, but slid into the third draft spot.
Francis joked that perhaps he shouldn't have sent Adams a text wishing him luck before the lottery began.
As consolations go, the opportunity to move up one spot in the order was far better than the Kraken's worst-case scenario of sliding to fifth.
"I wish it could have been us, but based on where we were, the fact that we did move up is exciting for us and our fans and our ownership group," Francis said.
The Kraken had the third-best odds at 10.3% -- tied with New Jersey -- in becoming the NHL's first of six expansion teams to win a lottery selection since the event was established in 1995.
In 2017, the Vegas Golden Knights were in the same position as Seattle, but wound up selecting sixth after losing three lottery drawings.
The only change this year involved the NHL reducing the number of drawings to determine the top two slots.
The Sabres had a 16.6% chance of landing the top pick, which was 1.9 points lower than the previous three lotteries in becoming the 10th last-place team to retain the top pick in the lottery era.
"To have this fall our way, to be in this position, it's whoo. It makes some of the things we went through this year, I feel a little better about it," Adams said. "It's a huge opportunity for our franchise to improve. I feel like this is a really, really big step, something we need."
The Sabres endured a calamitous season in which they fired coach Ralph Krueger in mid-March while in the midst of an 18-game winless streak, which matched the NHL's 14th-worst drought. Buffalo also missed the playoffs for a 10th consecutive season to match the NHL record.
The Arizona Coyotes, who finished 22nd, were barred from winning the lottery after the NHL stripped the team of its first-round selection for violating league rules by physically testing draft-eligible players before the 2020 pre-draft combine. Though Arizona was included in the lottery process to maintain the odds, the NHL would have redrawn if the Coyotes' number came up.
The remaining 12 teams retained their order in the draft by virtue of where they finished in the standings, with New Jersey sitting fourth and the New York Rangers 15th.
The two-day draft will be held virtually for a second consecutive year, with the first round being held on July 23 -- two days after the Kraken's expansion draft.
The coronavirus pandemic has added more uncertainty to this year's class of prospects, due to shortened or even canceled seasons, and because of travel limits placed on scouting staffs.
The NHL Central Scouting Bureau has three Michigan players listed among its top six North American prospects, and led by top-ranked player, 6-foot-6 defenseman Owen Power, who is currently representing Canada at the World Hockey championships in Latvia.
The Wolverines are rounded out by centers Kent Johnson, ranked third, and Matthew Beniers, ranked sixth.
The second-ranked North American skater is Canadian junior center Mason McTavish, who played in Switzerland last season.
Central scouting ranks Swedish-born left wing William Eklund as its top international skater.
In Buffalo, the Sabres woes carried over into the offseason with Eichel questioning his future by citing differences with the team over how to treat a herniated disk, which forced him to miss the final two months of the season.
Eichel favors having cervical disk replacement surgery, while Sabres doctors are against it because the procedure has never before performed on an NHL player.
With the two sides preparing to meet again this week, Adams said the team's medical staff hasn't changed its position.
Without providing a timeline on a decision, Adams has spent the past five weeks conducting a wide-ranging coaching search, whose candidates include Don Granato, who completed the season in an interim role.
------
AP Sports Writer Tim Booth in Seattle, Washington, contributed to this report.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.