Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
If teams are intentionally telling their players to tank and the players are doing it then that's a severe integrity issue and the NHL has to find a way to remove that temptation because to me that would be incredibly wrong.
I honestly don't think that teams should be allowed to draft top 5 two years in a row, there shouldn't be a continual massive rewarding for failure. I believe that if you draft top 5 two years in a row the next year the earliest you can draft would be 15th.
You can argue that the Flames tried to tank by trading established players for futures and draft picks, as that goes against what every GM should be striving for which is remaining competitive.
However I don't believe a GM or a coach ever tells a team to go out and take it easy and lose games on purpose.
The Edmonton Oilers have tanked due to complete managerial and ownership incompetence, a terrible coach and a team that just can't function in the NHL, but I have a hard time believing that the coach or the GM went to the players and said "Gas it for McKinnon"
On a personal note, if the Flames players ever agreed to take it easy and not play hard intentionally it would be the last time the franchise gets any of my money.
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I understand what you are saying and I don't believe that players are ordered to tank. There are however subtle ways for management and coaches to influence the competitiveness of the team. Like Dreger said last night Paul Maurice commented that the year the Hurricanes hit rock bottom and drafted Staal that the team was decimated and when he asked for help Rutherford told him the roster would recieve no help down the stretch. That's clearly tanking and it worked as Staal brought them a Stanley Cup. Professional sports is not much different than any other big business in that morales and integrity take a back seat to business goals.