Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Because the draft does what it's supposed to do - funnel elite talent to the worst teams so those teams can become better in the future. Along with the salary cap, it's the primary mechanism to enforce parity in the league. And the league sees parity as in its collective financial interest.
Burke was actually complaining the other day that the system is unfair because a team that just failed to make the playoffs, like Arizona, might win. He thinks they should go back to a model where only the five worst teams are eligible for the lottery (but he also says if a team picks #1 OA it shouldn't be eligible to win the lottery again for three years).
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To your first paragraph, it doesn't really do that. The Flyers jumped something like 10 spots (to Burke's point). They weren't rewarded.
It would be nice if they could come up with a system something along the lines of taking the last 10 games of the season for the bottom 5 clubs and rewarding them first overall by means of best winning percentage. Win your way to the top pick versus tanking. Some of those games could still have meaning before being officially eliminated whilst others would otherwise be meaningless games 'once' eliminated. Either way it gives bottom teams something to play for and a purpose to play hard to the end of the season. Fans of those teams would also have much more reason to tune in and cheer a victory versus the alternative.
Im sure the above is not a perfect plan and has many holes to it, but I'm just spitballing an idea/concept is all.