Is the draft lottery working?

[TeddyBare]

Yeah and without the lottery you would have had nico or Patrick instead of petterson

Multiple times Vancouver Management has confirmed that they didnt have either player #1 or 2

Linden hinted it was Makar I believe.

 

[DavidBL]

For me the lottery is a tool the NHL uses to promote good management and teams trying to remain competitive. Teams like Ottawa and LA are where they re because of how they were managed. They took gambles and now they're paying for them. Chicago getting to the top 3 just promotes that you can still try and be competitive and still have a chance at a high end prospect. At the end of the day if you're a legit bad team you are going to get multiple shots at high picks, like Tor, Edm, Buf. If the kings are legit as bad as they were this year than Kakko or Hughes wouldn't turn them around on their own. But they're not... They have a high end 1c and one of the top D men in the league already. A top 2 prospect probably puts them right back into contention, at the very least for the playoffs. I know thats how I felt as a Ducks fan. Fans want quick turn arounds but for truly bad teams its likely more than 1-2 year thing which means you're getting multiple high end picks. If you don't want to get screwed by the lottery build your team more responsably so that your fate doesn't appear to rest on the shoulders of a single 18 year old. Heck NYR tore it down and still managed to ice a better team then what 5 other teams? Don't reward mediocrity.

 

[Avelanche]

it's incredibly unfair to teams in the playoffs that chicago, minny, montreal or arizona could have gotten hughes.

 

[ponder719]

The lottery worked fine in 2017 when the Flyers jumped up to #2. It worked terribly this year.

 

[Hockey Stick]

it's incredibly unfair to teams in the playoffs that chicago, minny, montreal or arizona could have gotten hughes.

Well then it's incredibly unfair to teams like chicago, minny, montreal and arizona that they had good years and didnt get to participate in the playoffs

 

[KeyserSoze81]

Ehh, it's bush league, much like most of the decisions made by the league. Maybe we can rearrange divisions again next year? And then we can be locked out for the following year, and have another Crosby style lottery for all teams.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

One could claim drafted players can also get hurt by these teams then not developing them properly (putting them in NHL too soon etc). Not sure there’s much merit to that.

I think people could look at certain players and say "they got rushed, they should have been brought along more slowly / given better support." Tage Thompson of Buffalo stands out as a very recent example; not saying Thompson is some sure-fire top-6 guy in this league, but his first two pro seasons between St. Louis and Buffalo quite arguably harmed his long-term development. The Blues threw him into the fire when pretty obviously not ready and expected him to carry lesser players and quasi-anchor a line with no prior NHL experience, then shuffled him back and forth from the AHL to compound things; Buffalo just left him in the NHL and let him struggle and then exiled him to the press box when he struggled instead of getting him to the AHL and letting him gain some confidence and work through his mistakes in a lower-pressure setting.

 

[Legion34]

They can throw fits if they like, and I can call them stupid for doing so.

If they had never changed the rules in the first place McDavid wouldn't be a member of the Oilers right now.

Bet mcdavid hates the new rules more than anyone

 

[BFLO]

Edmonton only got 1oa 4 times because of the lottery. They only finished last twice. If you want to eliminate teams from getting 1oa 4 times, eliminate the lottery. Draft in reverse order of standings.

I can't wait until Edmonton wins the lotto again from like 22nd place and everyone loses their minds.

Or a team like Pittsburgh misses the playoffs by 1 point next year and they win 1oa. Or tampa has another random down year and they miss the playoffs by 1 point and win 1oa.

 

[TGWL]

Bet mcdavid hates the new rules more than anyone

Not like it would have been better if he ended up in Buffalo. In every full season he played, they have out performed Buffalo.

 

[Legion34]

Edmonton only got 1oa 4 times because of the lottery. They only finished last twice. If you want to eliminate teams from getting 1oa 4 times, eliminate the lottery. Draft in reverse order of standings.

I can't wait until Edmonton wins the lotto again from like 22nd place and everyone loses their minds.

Or a team like Pittsburgh misses the playoffs by 1 point next year and they win 1oa. Or tampa has another random down year and they miss the playoffs by 1 point and win 1oa.

This I think is the mistake.
First overall should be an lottery of bottom 5

Then top 10 get in the lottery for 2

All non playoff teams in the third.

De incentivized the tank. Doesn’t allow a 95 pt team to get the first overall.

 

[Coastal Kev]

A lottery allows a league to manipulate for the "good of the league". It's not that I don't trust people...... no I don't trust people.

 

[TGWL]

Edmonton only got 1oa 4 times because of the lottery. They only finished last twice. If you want to eliminate teams from getting 1oa 4 times, eliminate the lottery. Draft in reverse order of standings.

I can't wait until Edmonton wins the lotto again from like 22nd place and everyone loses their minds.

Or a team like Pittsburgh misses the playoffs by 1 point next year and they win 1oa. Or tampa has another random down year and they miss the playoffs by 1 point and win 1oa.

The bottom teams should have a chance. The player doesn't just make them better. The player can draw revenue for a struggling franchise. Maybe you change it to bottom 10, but at what point is the line drawn? 2 teams tied for 10th place and a ROW deciding factor eliminates of those teams from being in the lottery drawing? People are going to complain about that either way.

 

[Coastal Kev]

This is a very good point

also, the aim of the Lottery is to reduce teams intentionally putting out bad rosters in order to get a better draft position. Because we don't know if any teams would have operated differently had the draft been strict reverse order, we cannot measure its efficacy.

BUT

Just because you can't measure its efficacy doesn't mean its not effective. Being at the bottom of the league is less of a meal ticket than it was before. in theory, this should discourage tanking.

This is the narrative that league puts out and the sheep gobble it up for consumption. The real reason for the lottery is control over the assets.

 

[CherryToke]

It's obviously stupid and not working. There should be no opportunity for foul play. The way it is now, how do we know strings are not being pulled? It's a joke.

 

[tucker3434]

They should go back to the way it was several years ago where you could only move up 5 spots. I generally don’t think a team that barely missed the playoffs should be jumping over the terrible teams at the very bottom of the standings.

But my team should be good enough for the foreseeable future to be no worse than a team that barely misses the playoffs, so screw it. Let it ride.

 

[Kaapo Cabana]

This is the narrative that league puts out and the sheep gobble it up for consumption. The real reason for the lottery is control over the assets.

I apologize for my lack of "woke-ness"

what else have I missed Shepherd?

 

[Coastal Kev]

I apologize for my lack of "woke-ness"

what else have I missed Shepherd?

Exactly

 

[Kaapo Cabana]

Exactly

I am confusion

 

[Cupless44]

If you were in Vancouver, you would definitely not say the draft lottery is working. Over the past 4 years, Vancouver has the worst combined record in the NHL, yet have dropped draft position in every single lottery and have never picked above #5.

Not to mention not one #1 pick in 50 years.

 

[NinjaKick]

the Devils only won 2 of the last 3 drafts... so no

 

[TaketheCannoli]

I heard this somewhere and thought it was a good idea. The idea is teams that barely missed the playoffs shouldn't be able to move up to get a higher pick than teams that finished 10-15 points behind them. It also accounts for inept management. Teams that just do a bad job of team building shouldn't get rewarded with lots of top 3 draft picks.

The draft lottery is for the first three picks only and the bottom 5 teams are in the lottery. If a team wins the first overall, they are ineligible for the lottery for the next three years. If a team wind one of the top 3 picks twice in three years, they are ineligible for the lottery for the next three years.

This would eliminate teams like Chicago moving up 12 spots and Philly moving up 11 spots. It would also keep teams like Edmonton from winning three 1st overalls in a row and four in 6 years, or the Devils winning 2 in 3 years.

 

[Gnashville]

Still need a rule that says teams can’t get a 1st overall but once in a decade. Edmonton and now NJ have become. Plus teams that win a SC have to wait a decade to win a 1st overall.

 

[Kairi Zaide]

This I think is the mistake.
First overall should be an lottery of bottom 5

Then top 10 get in the lottery for 2

All non playoff teams in the third.

De incentivized the tank. Doesn’t allow a 95 pt team to get the first overall.

That's probably the single most logical idea that stems from this thread.

The bottom teams should have a chance. The player doesn't just make them better. The player can draw revenue for a struggling franchise. Maybe you change it to bottom 10, but at what point is the line drawn? 2 teams tied for 10th place and a ROW deciding factor eliminates of those teams from being in the lottery drawing? People are going to complain about that either way.

2 teams tied for 8th place and a ROW deciding factor takes one of those teams out of the playoffs > no problem
2 teams tied for 5th/10th place and a ROW deciding factor takes them out of a lottery drawing > sir we have a problem!!!

 

[Price is Wright]

Lottery is garbage. There's nothing wrong with tanking and these days we have a lottery to give teams to barely missed the playoffs a shot to move up in the draft. That's it really.

I would put the whole league up to a vote: either we scrap the lottery with the loser point so the best picks goto the teams with the least wins or we goto the wheel and everyone gets a Top 6 pick every 6 seasons over 32 years and everyone knows where they draft every year.