Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
You can't separate the fact that when they were bad, they were also poor, or that they also drafted well in general outside of the top 5 picks they had, and that they also had new management at the time they turned it around.
Even if you attribute their success to high draft picks, for every "Pittsburgh", there is an Islanders, Columbus, Edmonton, Florida or Atlanta who didn't have the same success, or a Detroit that has had success despite never having many consecutive high picks.
The anecdotal evidence does not suggest a relationship between the draft lottery and success. One example does not mean correlation.
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You're arguing that it doesn't help. You're wrong.
It does EXACTLY that: help.
High draft picks does not an elite team make, but for teams that put the work in it certainly helps the process. Good teams are built by astute management, but having high level players is a general requirement of being a high level time.
You brought up Detroit, excellent example. After years of poor drafting in the 1st round (save for Kronwall) and trading that pick, where are they now? They were elite 3-4 years ago, but they've been falling down to earth ever since because of the lack of young high end talent on their roster.
Drafting high helps. It's not how you build a great team, but to write it off as having no correlation is misinformed.