By Mark J. Rebilas/Associated PressFor the first time in years, the Tampa Bay Lightning have made the postseason and will earn a second straight expansion draft pick.
The Lightning, who were granted permission by the NHL to enter the expansion draft after winning their first-round series, were awarded two draft picks in this year’s draft, which is scheduled to begin Thursday and finish April 29.
The team that makes the playoffs is the Philadelphia Flyers, who won the first round and were granted a second round pick in 2018.
They are currently in the second round.
The Tampa Bay team will likely not receive a second-round pick until the 2019 draft, when it will be a first-rounder for the 2020 draft.
The other team to earn two second- or third-round picks in 2019 is the Columbus Blue Jackets, who received two in 2019, two in 2020 and two in 2021.
The Columbus Blue Jays, who are playing in the American League East, will likely receive one of the two second rounds.
In other expansion draft news, the Washington Capitals will likely be able to select their first overall pick.
They have a choice between three prospects, including the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Ivan Provorov and the Chicago Blackhawks’ Ivan Barbashev.
The Capitals selected Provoriv, a right-handed defenseman from Slovakia, in the first-overall round of the 2019 NHL Draft.
He was projected to go in the top-six.
The Penguins selected Barbashenv, a left-handed center from Russia, in a seventh-overth-round selection in 2018 that the Capitals selected with the second pick in the 2019 Draft.
Barbasheshv was projected by some to go the top of the draft.
Barbasheshvs development has been slowed by injuries.
He missed nearly all of last season with an upper-body injury.