I Hate The Draft Lottery

[HanSolo]

I think the problem is Edmonton winning so many times has created this visual of the draft rewarding such an incompetent team. The ideal behind the lottery is not to reward teams but to try to extend them a hand to build around a potential star to find their way back into competition. Perennial failures like the Oilers have bastardized this concept to a severe degree.

I'm citing the same argument Oiler fans use every time they get a first overall pick but I'm using it to suggest that a team like theirs should be barred from winning the lottery after drafting first overall for a set amount of time. Force teams to try to actually build or just be content with the guys available at #2-#5. I don't buy this idea that Edmonton's management is so incapable that they can't find a way to structure a roster better than they have after 12 years. Whatever may be going on in their heads, it really feels like they are perfectly content with giving up on a season when things go awry because they can just fall back on the draft. There's no pressure to make smart moves because eventually the roster will build itself out of the draft. Except no, we've already seen Hall and Eberle depart for inferior assets.

Oiler fans can call it salt and bitterness all they want but they can't keep be allowed to keep hoarding the top talent. They've long passed the point of reasonableness in draft assistance. It's time for the team to take action to end their embarrassing run of failures, and they truly, unequivocally, do not deserve and should not be allowed to draft Rasmus Dahlin. McDavid is the best prospect since Crosby and Dahlin may be the best defensive prospect since I can't even think of who (Karlsson doesn't count since he wasn't as highly touted as he ended up being). I generally don't agree with the idea that bad teams shouldn't have access to top draft talent, because I am for parity and I do believe if the richest teams in the league had no cap and could draft high in the lottery there would be zero parity. But. Edmonton was already gifted one of the top talents in the league and in that sense after three first overall picks in a row, yes, that was absolutely gifting a team an asset they really didn't earn at all. Like I said, Edmonton has received plenty of assets from the draft system and there's really no argument left that they somehow deserve the best defensive prospect in recent memory.

 

[Paralyzer]

i think its okay to balance it in favor of the worst teams, BUT there should be a caveat for teams which constantly draft high like the Oilers. Kind of like how the NBA did after the Magic drafted Oneal and Hardaway back to back years

But that's not the Oilers fault. That's the NHL's fault. Oilers only placed last twice. The rest was all from the Draft Lottery. So if you took the Lottery out, the Oilers would only have had 2 1st overalls.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

I am absolutely SHOCKED to see fans from Toronto and New York calling the cap a bad thing. Shocked I tell you.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Yeah OP you're right, it's awful that the really good teams with great management have to work with these "rules". It's just awful that it's harder to build a really good team because there are constraints on them that help the rest of the league keep it competitive.

Oh wait. No. That's silly. If you're a fan of "tough love" it goes both ways. Build a really good team and keep it going for years and years - if you can, without handouts. It puts more of a focus on drafting and development beyond the 1st round - the good teams know how to get the most out of their players and systems WITHIN THE RULE SYSTEM THAT EXISTS. Stop feeling sorry for big markets just because they can't overspend and choke out the smaller teams completely. OP is from LA though.

If you can't build a competitive team within the salary cap without drafting high in the draft, you don't deserve to win Stanley cups either. You get other benefits instead of getting a crack at the really high end talent, such as attractiveness of location, infinite money, and a huge fanbase.


"Parity sucks". That's just a dumb thing to say.

 

[New Jersey]

please don't lump my devils in with the oilers and sabres. some teams actually are trying to get better.

k thx.

 

[oXo Cube]

It's like you guys think we're down here on purpose or something.

Always hilarious to watch a bunch of fans of consistent playoff teams whine about the draft lottery.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

One suggestion that I'd like to see tried out (maybe at the AHL level somehow) is once you're eliminated, you start to amass points. Team that amasses the most points from the time they are eliminated gets first pick. And so on.

Doesn't really work the way you were thinking. A team that gets eliminated very early would have a ton more games to get those points in. A team that's in it until the end, might only have a couple games to amass points, or even 0 games.

 

[Paralyzer]

It's like you guys think we're down here on purpose or something.

Always hilarious to watch a bunch of fans of consistent playoff teams whine about the draft lottery.

Agreed. Do you really think the Oilers fans LOVE being the last team in the league? It's sad when people have to assume teams suck on purpose because they want to 'ruin' the league.

 

[412 Others]

this guy is 100% ok with the cap (thanks uncle gary). population shouldn't drive team success. some big market fans have convinced themselves that 'unwavering fan support' is the reason for their revenue advantage. it's a numbers game... and not a very complicated one.

 

[Ninety7]

Just remember it was the NHL that changed the rules and gifted us McDavid before you point fingers. Bless their souls for that.

 

[Paralyzer]

Just remember it was the NHL that changed the rules and gifted us McDavid before you point fingers. Bless their souls for that.

Yup. I remember we were all expecting Hanifin that year. No expectations for McDavid whatsoever. Blame the NHL.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Ain't no Oiler fan clicking on this one.....

why for oiler bashing?

Where were these threads when the Pens were getting all their top 3 picks--nowhere

people like you are just too lazy to look at the big picture and see how OTHER teams besides the oilers have done this.

Pens Dynasty was built on them tanking and admitting to it

while the oilers sucked--they still had one of the highest cap hits for a long time--they spent money very poorly and traded even worse and did not have a clue how to develop

but posters like you do not want to look at what has actually happened because it hurts your narrative of constant, non stop bashing and other stuff.

We have no threads on the Pens and their Dynasty

for those tooo lazy too look at the Pen draft starting in 2002

2002 at 5 Whitney
2003 at 1 Fleury
2004 at 2 Malkin
2005 at 1 Crosby
2006 at 2 Staal

so why are you not calling out the Pens as well and not just the oilers?

Because you are lazy and it hurts your narritive

 

[Fatty McLardy]

Can't wait to see your reaction when Oilers win Dahlin...

 

[Jumptheshark]

Can't wait to see your reaction when Oilers win Dahlin...

we are tired of losing and you need to improve your trolling to get our goats

where are you comments when the NHL rewarded the Pens? please enlighten us with how mad you were then

 

[WingsMJN2965]

I miss not having a salary cap more. Why build a power house only to have to tear it down because your team is too good?

Ehh. The NHL is a business. Putting 10-15 teams in a position where they're never going to win because the big markets have the money to pay players is horrible business.

 

[TheRexman]

I am absolutely SHOCKED to see fans from Toronto and New York calling the cap a bad thing. Shocked I tell you.

This Leafs fan is quite happy to have the Salary cap. I want the smaller franchises to stay and the only way they will is to level the playing field so, yeah, I'm good with it.

I'm shocked a Jets fan actually turned on a computer.

Oh wait, I'm generalizing again, my bad.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

This Leafs fan is quite happy to have the Salary cap. I want the smaller franchises to stay and the only way they will is to level the playing field so, yeah, I'm good with it.

I'm shocked a Jets fan actually turned on a computer.

Oh wait, I'm generalizing again, my bad.

I am not saying that all the fans from those cities hate the cap. It's just always fans from larger market cities that complain about it. Essentially, it's always from teams that have the most to gain that complain about it.

Now join me in arms fellow cap loving brother. The complainers will be back, and in greater numbers.

 

[ThatGuy22]

As always, the way to stop rewarding incompetent management, while evening the odds for every market in the league is to continue to have a hard cap, and abolishing the NHL draft and Entry level system. Every player becomes a UFA at 18 years old.

 

[Kamiccolo]

- What fans cheer for has no impact on the team's performance, they are not the GM.

- What else is there to do? If your team is bad, what can you do but look forward to a good draft pick?

- If you are a team on the outside, and know you won't make the playoffs as you near the end of the year, what incentive is there for the fans? Sure, players get some satisfaction for playing hard to the last game, but fans want to get a better draft pick.

- And it was no lottery before, it just encouraged tanking. They changed it due to the Oilers. So now teams aren't tanking anymore.

 

[Paralyzer]

As always, the way to stop rewarding incompetent management, while evening the odds for every market in the league is to continue to have a hard cap, and abolishing the NHL draft and Entry level system. Every player becomes a UFA at 18 years old.

Yeah, that'll work swell

 

[GoJetsGo55]

- What fans cheer for has no impact on the team's performance, they are not the GM.

- What else is there to do? If your team is bad, what can you do but look forward to a good draft pick?

- If you are a team on the outside, and know you won't make the playoffs as you near the end of the year, what incentive is there for the fans? Sure, players get some satisfaction for playing hard to the last game, but fans want to get a better draft pick.

- And it was no lottery before, it just encouraged tanking. They changed it due to the Oilers. So now teams aren't tanking anymore.

Right but what if; and hear me out on this; what if we scrapped making smart, shrewd decisions and used dumptrucks filled with money to solve our problems?

 

[Spirit of 67]

Doesn't really work the way you were thinking. A team that gets eliminated very early would have a ton more games to get those points in. A team that's in it until the end, might only have a couple games to amass points, or even 0 games.

That's exactly how I think it works.

 

[SteelerNation]

Yeah OP you're right, it's awful that the really good teams with great management have to work with these "rules". It's just awful that it's harder to build a really good team because there are constraints on them that help the rest of the league keep it competitive.

Oh wait. No. That's silly. If you're a fan of "tough love" it goes both ways. Build a really good team and keep it going for years and years - if you can, without handouts. It puts more of a focus on drafting and development beyond the 1st round - the good teams know how to get the most out of their players and systems WITHIN THE RULE SYSTEM THAT EXISTS. Stop feeling sorry for big markets just because they can't overspend and choke out the smaller teams completely. OP is from LA though.

If you can't build a competitive team within the salary cap without drafting high in the draft, you don't deserve to win Stanley cups either. You get other benefits instead of getting a crack at the really high end talent, such as attractiveness of location, infinite money, and a huge fanbase.


"Parity sucks". That's just a dumb thing to say.

Oh look what do you know, an Oiler fan defending the lottery rules. You can’t even make this stuff up lol. As just discussed in another thread, the NHL changed the lottery rules because of Edmonton’s incompetence only to have it work out in their favor in the 2015 lottery. I think that was the 5th or 6th year in a row that Oiler fans gathered up to have “draft lottery parties”. Isn’t that a problem? A teams fan base having lottery parties?

 

[Frk It]

Every sports league has a system where the worst teams get the best pick of the best odds at the pick. Every year at some point fans start to hope for losing so they get a better pick because logically it makes sense. It's not a new phenomenon at all.

They did recently re-structure the lottery to de-incentivize the reward of being bad on purpose. They made it more random. I think they did a good job. A lot of casual fans don't even realize the lottery was changed and being dead last gets you a 18% chance at a #1 pick and a 52% chance at the #4 pick. If you finish dead last you are more likely to draft 4th than top 3 currently.

Teams like Colorado getting the #4 pick as the worst team is what the new lottery is designed to do. A few more years of this and fans will realize the reward for being the worst team isn't all that great. The new system is actually pretty decent on paper. The ideal system would be where the worst team still has the best odds of being rewarded, but not enough so that teams go out of their way to be bad. I think that's what we got with this new system.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

Oh look what do you know, an Oiler fan defending the lottery rules. You can’t even make this stuff up lol. As just discussed in another thread, the NHL changed the lottery rules because of Edmonton’s incompetence only to have it work out in their favor in the 2015 lottery. I think that was the 5th or 6th year in a row that Oiler fans gathered up to have “draft lottery parties”. Isn’t that a problem? A teams fan base having lottery parties?

Doesn't every team have a draft lottery party?

Winnipeg has one every year that the GM shouts out when making the pick.