Quote:
Originally Posted by codynw
You only say that because it was Calgary who finished in that position for so many years. The bad teams should get the high picks (with some sort of rule preventing too many high picks in a short time).
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Actually, it has nothing to do with the Flames. As for how frustrating it was watching the Flames battle for a playoff spot, only to falter and put themselves in a terrible draft position, they are not in that position currently or for the foreseeable future.
I personally think the odds are fine for the lottery. What I would like to see is there be some reward for a team who is battling until the final game of their season, and a penalty for a team that finds itself in the bottom 5 or 10 of the league too many times in 'x' amount of years.
For instance, give the 3rd over-all pick for the team from either conference that was the closest from making the playoffs.
If a team finishes bottom 5 in the league for the 4th year, their pick automatically becomes the 14th pick of the draft, and everyone moves up a slot that were between those picks.
Not saying that this is what should be adopted, but a general idea to both reward and punish teams that don't make the playoffs.
Perhaps changing all 14 picks to a lottery-draw for placement might force teams to play hard. They either make the playoffs and get the associated revenue, or they fail and have to wait until the draft lottery to see where from 1-14 they select for the draft. There would be absolutely no advantage to 'tanking' in this situation. Long term, however, might make parity very difficult to achieve, which is the real spirit of the NHL draft.
There has to be a way to discourage teams from finishing near the bottom of the standings year after year without penalizing them monetarily (which is often one of the reasons why some teams are in that spot) and without making it more difficult to eventually achieve parity. I don't think that you can satisfy just changing around the odds now. Bad teams SHOULD be selecting high, but should be discouraged from doing so for too long.