That was one interesting first round of the NHL draft — fitting for a Las Vegas show.

Everything from Beckett Sennecke going No. 3 overall and swearing on TV, to Celine Dion and Michael Buffer’s surprise appearances, to Zeev Buium falling into Minnesota’s lap at 12. Plenty of pick-swap trades, as expected, but nearly every lottery pick stayed put.

The use of technology inside Sphere with player mosaics was different and cool, allowing for innovative graphics, introduction videos and an immersive experience.

Centralizing the draft in Vegas at Sphere was a fun and unique approach given how different it is from an NHL arena. Using celebrities with ties to respective teams to draft players was well done. The trade horn brought some spunk and was especially funny when it was played while commissioner Gary Bettman was attempting to announce a trade. The NHL deserves high marks for stepping outside the box and executing the draft in a fun and unique way.

Here’s a rundown of the smart and questionable selections from the first round, and a look at the best remaining prospects on the board for Rounds 2-7 on Saturday.

NEW YORK — Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena misplayed a fly ball in Friday night’s 7-2 loss to the New York Mets while participating in an in-game interview.

Peña was involved in an interview with Apple TV+ just before New York’s Jeff McNeil popped up toward the shortstop area with one out in the bottom of the second inning. Peña was shaded toward the second-base bag against the left-handed hitting McNeil and ranged to his right and was on the edge of the outfield grass close behind third baseman Alex Bregman. Neither Peña not Bregman put his glove up to make the play on the popup, and the ball landed between them.

“Holy …,” Peña said as the ball bounced once before he grabbed it and tossed it back to the infield. Peña and Bregman appeared to glance briefly at one another.

McNeil was credited with a hit and was picked off first base by pitcher Ronel Blanco two pitches into Harrison Bader‘s at-bat. Bader struck out to end the inning.

Peña went on to contribute an RBI single in the third.

Peña is the second player in the past three weeks to misplay a ball while conducting an in-game interview, both with Apple TV+.

Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Enrique Hernandez was speaking with Dontrelle Willis in the second inning June 7 when a grounder by the New York Yankees‘ Gleyber Torres hit Hernández on his bare right hand and ricocheted off his body. Hernández recovered and threw to first, but Torres beat the throw and Hernández was charged with an error.

Torres didn’t score, and the Dodgers won 2-1 in 11 innings. Afterward, Hernández said he didn’t blame the error on being distracted because the ball “had a weird hop.”

Hernández said he wouldn’t reconsider whether to do in-game interviews in the future.

“No, because we’re getting paid,” he said. “I like money.”

Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement calls for a player to receive a $10,000 stipend for wearing a two-way microphone for at least one inning of a regular-season game. The amount rises to $15,000 in the postseason.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE — Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said ownership is “clearly frustrated” with the way the team has played this season and if its position in the standings doesn’t improve, he said he’ll have to think about subtracting from the roster instead of adding to it ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.

“It has undoubtedly dragged on far longer than we expected or hoped,” Hoyer said of a two-month slump that has seen the Cubs drop to 38-44 entering Friday. “We need to play a lot better. We dug ourselves a hole, and we have to dig out of that hole.

“It’s important we do that in this next 33 days or whatever we have until the deadline. You have to make hard decisions sometimes.”

The Cubs entered the weekend last in the NL Central, 10.5 games behind the first-place Brewers. They’ve lost seven games to Milwaukee in the standings over the last 31 days.

“I am very surprised,” Hoyer said. “Two weeks turned into four, turned into six, turned into eight … It just hasn’t ended.”

Hoyer pointed to the team’s offensive woes as a catalyst for its plummet, but the bullpen has struggled just as much. Chicago ranks 23rd in bullpen ERA, as it’s struggled to close out games and also has dealt with injuries. The latest to go down was middle-man Keegan Thompson, who was placed on the injured list with a rib fracture Friday. The team also designated newly acquired reliever Vinny Nittoli for assignment.

In the corresponding roster moves, the Cubs selected the contract of former Mets reliever Jorge Lopez and called up righty Ethan Roberts, who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2022 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

For Lopez, it’s a second chance. After he was pulled from the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 29, Lopez threw his glove into the stands and then had a misunderstanding with reporters afterward in an attempt to blame himself for some of the team’s issues. The Mets subsequently DFA’d him earlier this month.

“I’m never going to do it again in my life,” Lopez said Friday. “It’s emotions. I’ve been working on my mental health for a long time. That’s my priority to not show that anymore, give the best energy and body language that I can to the game.”

Lopez said he wants to set an example for his 11-year-old son.

“He doesn’t know much about it,” Lopez said. “I have to teach him the things not to do. Need to respect the game. I’m not proud of that (what happened).”

In joining the Cubs, Lopez is reunited with bullpen coach Darren Holmes, who held the same position with the Baltimore Orioles from 2019 to ’23, when Lopez pitched for the team.

Lopez and Roberts could be thrust into major roles as Chicago only has three relievers on its active roster from opening day. That turnover has contributed to its overall woes.

“Most of what we’ve been doing is out of necessity,” Hoyer said. “We keep getting hit there.”

In terms of the Cubs offense, Hoyer admitted he can’t tinker with it much considering his core players are all under longer-term contracts. In other words, the trade deadline won’t fix the team’s run-scoring problems; it will have to come from within.

“There’s not a ton of wiggle room on as far as how we can shake things up and improve things, positionally,” Hoyer said. “When you look at where we’ve performed this year with a team that’s stronger (on paper), it’s lesser. Is that frustrating to me? Absolutely. If it’s frustrating to me, I have to imagine it’s frustrating to the fans.”

But the Cubs also haven’t controlled the controllables.

For example, Chicago leads the league in one-run games and in outs made on the bases, including 15 at home plate. That’s a lot of potential scoring left out on the field, which could have turned losses into wins.

It’s also the third consecutive season the team has led the league in outs made at home plate, calling into question the judgment of third-base coach Willie Harris.

“We’ve done a ton of research,” Hoyer said. “Plays at the plate are really hard. It behooves you to be aggressive in those situations. You can take that a little too far. He is aggressive, and off the scorecard we work off of, he does a good job.”

The Cubs rank second in the league in going from first to third base on a single, so some of that aggressiveness has paid off. Yet overall the team hasn’t played as well as last season, when it won 83 games while just missing out on the postseason.

“Our win-total projections were higher this year than last year,” Hoyer said.

All of it adds up to a critical month for the team even though it doesn’t have a lot of pending free agents. Still, Hoyer will ultimately pivot to trading away players instead of adding if the standings dictate it.

“I don’t think it’s time for that full conversation, but it’s just a reality that we have to play better in July,” he said. “We backed ourselves into a corner.”