For drafting, a tank improves the chances every round at taking the guy we want. So in your example, 2 spots each round, would be 14 chances our guy gets taken ahead of our pick. It's probably only a major issue the first three rounds or so as draft boards start to diverge. Imagine us drafting Jones instead of Lindholm or perhaps De La Rose instead of flipping the pick for a trade when our rumored target gets drafted. Imagine how different our draft would have looked last year if we had the 6th pick. Probably no Hanifin, maybe no Aho.
But we're not going to move back to 6th this year. Chances are that we slide back from our current 13th to 10th or so. That's meaningful in the first round, slightly meaningful in the second, and trivial afterward. Even in the first round, it might not make a difference at all.
Lastly, a tank gives you the chance to give other players more playing time.
We're already playing 3 rookies and Faulk on defense. Murphy isn't sticking and the only other guy is Carrick, who's a 7D in the NHL.
There's no forward in Charlotte knocking the door down for an NHL spot -- McGinn, Tolchinsky, Karlsson, Woods and Brown are all very much AHL quality players for now.
If we had NHL-quality guys stashed in Charlotte, I'd be all for bringing them up. But IMO what we'd be doing in reality would be promoting unprepared players into limited roles with the Hurricanes, which isn't really helpful for either side of the equation.
More importantly, we'd be providing guys like Hanifin and Slavin and Di Giuseppe with a strong taste of loser culture in their first NHL seasons. That's the biggest thing I'd like to avoid here. Teach these kids to win games, to scrap for points. Not to skate meaningless shifts on a team that's losing on purpose.
And that extends to the fans too. We've seen a ton of bad hockey the past few years. Personally I'm pretty sick of having a team that just rolls over, goes to their happy places, and takes it willingly. It was one thing when we had a bunch of broken-down vets under a clueless coach and GM. But now we have a young team with a good coach and a smart GM. I want to see these guys establish the foundation of a team that plays hard for each other, with pride on the line if nothing else. I want them to at least get close enough to a playoff spot to really start stretching for it.
I think most that say tank are really saying we want something different. A plan that takes us out of a pattern that we've seen over the last several years. I feel that plan is taking a franchise player in the draft. The easiest and surest way to do that is through a tank.
Not sure what you mean about the past several years. We've been sellers at the past two deadlines.
And our only chance at drafting a franchise player in the ~10 range is dumb luck. There won't be a McDavid or Eichel hanging around where we're drafting.
