[Cecil Terwilliger]

Just in case anyone is feeling bummed, don't worry you aren't as hilariously bitter as this Montreal reporter. Conspiracy theory and accusations of tanking in the same article.

Why would the NHL want to arrange the result? Sure, Rogers paid a bazillion dollars for the broadcast rights. Yeah, the ratings for the network’s game telecasts are down there where the submarines roam, so Rogers is taking a bath on its NHL investment.

And yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the linchpin of that whole broadcast deal and they’ve been rancid since around 1967. But rig the draft so that the NHL’s pet franchise gets a crack at the top pick? Only a greedy, money-obsessed sports league would even … oh, never mind.

What is more troublesome than the possibility that the NHL might have rigged the lottery is the process that brought us to this point: Blatant, persistent tanking is fatal to a sports league. Any league. The players on the ice may be trying hard, but when management has already ensured failure by shipping out most of their high-priced players, that’s tanking.

That’s what the Toronto Maple Leafs did this year: they tanked. That Brendan Shanahan is being praised for tanking is so mind-bending, we won’t even go there. Somehow, even with the lottery percentages altered to give the league’s worst team only a 20 per cent shot at the top pick, the Leafs still beat 5-to-1 odds to waltz away with the chance to draft Auston Matthews.

The lesson? Tanking pays. The way to end it? Give all 14 non-playoff teams equal weight in the lottery. No team is going to tank for a chance to draft 14th.

http://montrealgazette.com/sports/ja...ering-over-nhl