Conspiracy has always been a part of sports as a whole.
The Crosby Lottery has been seen by many as fixed due to its impact on keeping Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. Essentially it makes too much sense whereas the McDavid lottery feels as if it were a bad result for the league as a whole in its marketing.
As a Sabres fan we will always feel '99 Cup Final had some degree of conspiracy to it. To give a few, according to a few Sabres beat reporters, the NHL brass like Gary Bettman were visibly angry after Buffalo won Game 1 as well as speaking as such to one another. Then you have the obvious elephant in the room of "No Goal" which has its own practically absurd story attached to it including the Toronto Situation Room sending its staff home, aside from the man in charge, prior to the 3OT. The supposed mid-season rule change fax having not effected many ruling between its supposed effective date. The league also supposedly, due to Dallas having already stormed the ice and begun celebrating, only did a quick review with the Situation Room lead and didn't want the image of a false Cup Winning goal and both team having to recompose and enter the ice.
From a logical standpoint it also makes sense seeing as up until Dallas, the furthest south team to win a Cup was Colorado since at that point all 3 California teams, the 2 Florida teams, the new Hurricanes franchise and the Capitals had all failed to win a Cup. Plus there were some rumblings about the Stars viability and seeing as they had "stolen" a team from Minnesota as well we've seen how Bettman defends his "Southern move" teams in Arizona it does make logical sense.