[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

That is a strawman.

The higher you draft, the more options you have.

Even if you lose the lottery, the draft order is still determined by inverse record.


The Flames arguably have a better amateur scouting history relative to their draft position than the Avs over the last decade or so. They HAVE found steals in later rounds... star level talents like Gaudreau, Mangiapane, Kylington, Andersson, Brodie, Giordano... this is high praise of their drafting.

But they don't have the better absolute draft history for the simple reason that the Avs picked in the top ten of the first round multiple years.

In 2009 - Duchene vs [no pick, traded for Jokinen]
In 2011 - Landeskog vs Baertschi
In 2013 - MacKinnon vs Monahan
In 2015 - Rantanen vs [no pick, traded for Hamilton]
In 2017 - Makar vs Valimaki
In 2018 - Bowen Byram vs [no pick, traded for Hamonic]


In the above list, the Avs indeed made the playoffs in 2018. But you'll recall that pick was the return on the Matt Duchene trade.

We have never given Tod Button six top ten picks in a nine year span.

You want to suck for 9 years in hopes of that happening? And the they were going nowhere after all that until Makar.