Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonded
I really don’t get why people are so confident that the team won’t fade next year when they watched a team with arguably more talent make the playoffs and then end up with a 6th overall pick the following year.
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This.
The difference between a 6th OV pick and 16th OV pick in the NHL isn't very much, year to year fluctuation can easily cover that gap.
Now you generally need to be REALLY bad to get that top 3 pick, like San Jose, Chicago, etc level bad.
But really in a normal season pick 4 - pick 16 are pretty interchangeable due to the level of parity in the NHL. Luck, goaltending, injuries, etc can easily have you go from a wild card spot to a top 5 pick the next season (looking at you Nashville).
Even just this season Boston was in a playoff spot at the 4 nations break and ended up with the 7th OV pick.
Flames could make the playoffs next year, but they could just as easily pick top 10.