2014 NHL Entry Draft Lottery - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

SeanCharles · 11-08-2013, 09:20 AM

Does anyone else think there should be a better way of mitigating the advantage Eastern Conference teams have of getting a top 10 pick.

As of today 7 out of the bottom 10 teams in the league in points are Eastern teams.

NJ wont get a pick this year but the 11th and 12th bottom feeder teams are also in the East.

Every year, since I can remember, the East has always had less points than the west. I still remember in 2009/10 when Philly went to the Cup Finals and finished the reg. season with 88 points, and finished 7th overall in the East. The Flames finished 10th in the west with 90 points...

I understand alot more cr@p teams play in the East but, 16 teams in their conference or not, they seem to have historically and currently always had the advantage in regards to higher draft picks...

Thought?

OutOfTheCube · 11-08-2013, 09:26 AM

The last three seasons the bottom ten team have been split evenly between East/West. What's the problem?

KootenayFlamesFan · 11-08-2013, 09:31 AM

The East has a lot of bad teams this year that will finish near the bottom and deserve those high picks. I don't see the issue here, it's just seems to be a bad year for that conference.

Oling_Roachinen · 11-08-2013, 09:34 AM

The reason the West gets more points is because the West is better than the East. The point of the draft is to give the better picks to the worse teams, it makes sense that the bad teams should be picking higher. Bad teams in the west probably have an easier chance of picking first overall now since they don't get to see as many of the bottom feeding teams.

And I mean the last 4 first overall picks (thanks to the lottery last season) ended up out west...

codynw · 11-08-2013, 09:35 AM

The bad teams should get priority when it comes to the draft. I see no issue.

TurnedTheCorner · 11-08-2013, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

Does anyone else think there should be a better way of mitigating the advantage Eastern Conference teams have of getting a top 10 pick.

No. These things happen cyclically. If the West was a crap conference in a year the Flames were bad, I would be annoyed if something was done to mitigate the Flames' chances.

Let the chips fall where they may.

_Q_ · 11-08-2013, 09:40 AM

1st over-all should always go to the Flames. Even if (when) they win the Stanley Cup, the Flames should always have the first pick.

That should fix everything.

Tacoman · 11-08-2013, 09:44 AM

The good news for the Flames is that while we're not nearly as bad as some of those east teams, we should end up below them in the standings since we have to play in the West. Probably 8 of the top 10 teams in the league are in our conference so its going to remain very tough to generate points through the course of the year. So when you think of it that way, we're at an advantage compared to the Eastern non-playoff teams and will get a better pick than we probably should!

You Need a Thneed · 11-08-2013, 09:57 AM

Let's evaluate the number of teams from each conference in the bottom 10 at the end of the season, instead of after 15 games.

Robbob · 11-08-2013, 10:15 AM

Yeah, to look at the other side of the coin I am sure all the eastern teams want some sort of Edmonton Oiler rule so they could get a chance to develop these high picks. Bad teams should get the picks.

SeanCharles · 11-08-2013, 01:12 PM

Fair enough thanks for the input!

Quote:

Originally Posted by codynw

The bad teams should get priority when it comes to the draft. I see no issue.

One thing I dont like about the draft is, you saw it last year, some teams who no longer have playoff hopes will purposefully dress lesser players, play better players less etc. to improve their chances of losing in order to draft higher...

There's also good teams who drop down the standing due to injuries and draft higher even though their team is good when healthy. You saw it last draft when both TB and CAR got a top 5 pick. Niether of these teams are bottom 5 teams...The Flames and BUF were both worse teams than them last year when fully healthy...

Poe969 · 11-08-2013, 01:22 PM

We just need to find a way to get Ekblad! Hopefully the oilers, flyers, sabres and panthers can collectively get better...heck maybe the Flames can find a way to help them out and get better long term in the process.

It is unfair that the east is so much worse than the west but such is life. At least we're treated to better hockey games!

Righteous1 · 11-08-2013, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by codynw

The bad teams should get priority when it comes to the draft. I see no issue.

Flames should always get priority; followed by bad teams

codynw · 11-08-2013, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

One thing I dont like about the draft is, you saw it last year, some teams who no longer have playoff hopes will purposefully dress lesser players, play better players less etc. to improve their chances of losing in order to draft higher...

There's also good teams who drop down the standing due to injuries and draft higher even though their team is good when healthy. You saw it last draft when both TB and CAR got a top 5 pick. Niether of these teams are bottom 5 teams...The Flames and BUF were both worse teams than them last year when fully healthy...

And how are they supposed to do anything to prevent that? Honestly, if a team wants to play bad on purpose to get a better draft pick, let them. It just puts a losing mentality in the dressing room and turns the team into the Oilers.

The draft lottery prevents someone from getting a guaranteed 1st overall, that's really the only thing they can do about it.

d_phaneuf · 11-08-2013, 02:19 PM

only change I would make is to have it be more of a lottery

I don't know if it's a 1/14 chance, but every team should have at least a 5% chance of winning and no one should be higher than 15%

wouldn't mind something around the top 3 picks all chosen by lottery as well, meaning that the worst that the worst team can do is pick 4th, but they still only have a 15% chance of first

would limit tanking I think

codynw · 11-08-2013, 02:21 PM

These are the odds from the 2013 draft.

Spoiler!

stemit14 · 11-08-2013, 02:42 PM

Can't help but notice how many of the top 10 ranked draft picks are left wingers. We seem to have lots of good left winger prospects already so I hope we end up in a spot where a centerman or defenseman is the best player available.

Jason14h · 11-08-2013, 02:46 PM

Actually the East should get an advantage/bump in their odds. Since the West is better, the bad teams (Flames) play better competition and will get less points. In the East, the bad teams play each other and one team HAS to win.

We are lucky to be in the stronger conference over the course of a season

SeanCharles · 11-08-2013, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by codynw

And how are they supposed to do anything to prevent that? Honestly, if a team wants to play bad on purpose to get a better draft pick, let them. It just puts a losing mentality in the dressing room and turns the team into the Oilers.

The draft lottery prevents someone from getting a guaranteed 1st overall, that's really the only thing they can do about it.

I agree with you 99%.

Except when a generational talent comes along, which is going to happen soon, it wont matter because you can build your team around him and the sky is the limit.

Its like Pittsburgh hitting the lottery with Crosby when they already had picked in the top 5 for 3 years in a row and then would do so again the following year (Whitney-5, Fleury-1, Malkin-2, Crosby-1, Staal-2).

Having Crosby makes them a playoff threat every year because he is better than everyone else (having an elite supporting cast helps).

Point is McDavid could be a reason why plenty of lowly teams tank, part of me thinks it might not be a bad idea even though I love the current winning approach to the rebuild.

I just don't want another case of a team that is already stacked with elite prospects to end up with McDavid.