QOTD: Which teams are tanking?

[Bingo]

most publicized draft since 2003 to have a top pick, and potentially most publicized draft since Crosby to have the first overall pick (partially due to McDavid, and partially due to the changes in the lottery and presence of two players).

Which teams are in tank mode? Any?

Buffalo has lost 13 straight
Edmonton is 5-5 in their last 10, their best stretch this season
Carolina is on a 7-2-1 run since getting their Staal's back
Arizona 2-6-2
and Toronto, a brutal 1-8-1 in their last 10

Last night four of these teams met with the Oilers beating the Sabres, and the Leafs extending their woes.

Are any of these teams tanking?

[RyZ]

Edmonton, Buffalo and Toronto are in full tank mode right now.

[GranteedEV]

Toronto isn't tanking. Their leading scorer is just snake-bitten to hell.

[Buff]

I voted Buffalo, because:

1. Edmonton is no good and probably truly trying but truly sucking
2. Carolina should be a lot better and had some tough luck early on.
3. Arizona, well maybe now they are tanking now that they're so low in the standings but should have been better earlier on.
4. Toronto is not tanking. If they are then they go in full-tank mode every year somewhere around Christmas.
5. Buffalo has been in full tank mode since trade deadline 2013.

[transplant99]

I don't believe for a second that any group of 23 professionals can come together and decide to purposely lose games when their very futures are on the line.....Therefore no teams are intentionally losing but there certainly some poorly constructed groups which leads to losing a lot. That's what we are seeing in my opinion.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by transplant99

I don't believe for a second that any group of 23 professionals can come together and decide to purposely lose games when their very futures are on the line.....Therefore no teams are intentionally losing but there certainly some poorly constructed groups which leads to losing a lot. That's what we are seeing in my opinion.

Very true. Buffalo is poorly constructed almost on purpose. They aren't looking for the worst players so they lose, they're looking for young inexperienced guys who won't carry them to the playoffs yet so that they have a better chance at the top pick.

It depends on how you look at tanking. If you believe that the players are losing on purpose, then you're out to lunch. If you believe that management has chosen to build the team with certain players that won't help their chances of winning, then yes, teams are tanking. The latter they can call rebuilding, but it's really just a way to get a strong chance at a good young player or two who can help rebuild your team into a strong for years to come.

[northcrunk]

I can see Edmonton climbing the standing out of the bottom 2. Toronto, Buffalo and Arizona are in full tank mode thought. I think the oilers management is intentially tanking but everyone knows they cant do anything right.

[Scoutski]

I don't think any management group has come to the players and asked them to do anything other than play their best. However I think some teams, and specifically Buffalo have set their team up with a "long-term mentality" and have knowingly sacrificed an ability to compete this year.

I would say it's kind of good timing for them because I expect their strategy wouldn't be that different even if it was any other draft year.

[Coach]

I went to choose Edmonton and Buffalo, but couldn't select both. So I went with the obvious choice.

E=NG

[worldwidej------]

To decide if a team is tanking I look at roster and personnel moves made by management and owners more than a teams win loss record.

Players in the NHL as competitors and athletes I can't see them willingly lose so they can potentially draft some magical hockey player.

They may not have the confidence to help win in such a close, tough league. They may not try quite as hard because they are not winning. However I don't think that the players are willingly losing.

Arizona traded their better goalie, dubnyk, to the wild.

The oilers fired Eakins and I think have been slightly better since? They also traded Perron to Pittsburgh, not sure how that affected the team.

Toronto wins when Kessel scores and without a 5on5 goal in 23games I can see why they are terrible now. They also fired their coach.

Carolina had injuries. I can see them hovering 4-7.

I'm not sure why buffalo has lost 13 in a row. Young team, cold goaltending, no real first liners. No moves I can think of.


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[N-E-B]

I went with Arizona because they've been the most open about trading away their veterans. Buffalo is too, but I think Edmonton is just genuinely that bad.

[Table 5]

I don't think players and coaches tank because they just don't have long-term security to be able to withstand crappy results.

But management can and does do so by simple inaction... and Edmonton, Buffalo, Toronto qualify for me under this definition (and I haven't really paid attention to Arizona). Edmonton and Toronto are both waiting for the summer to make any moves (and oh, if a McDavid drops into our laps in the meantime...oops), and Buffalo just wants to hoard as many prospects as possible.

[DoubleF]

Arizona and Buffalo are from a management perspective IMO.

Edmonton is just 20 different kinds of bad. Fans and Management are so confused, they're probably claiming they're tanking so they have some kind of unified direction to rally around. I don't think they're tanking on purpose, they're just bad and problematic. It's probably the only label they can rally around and be the least embarrassed to admit.

I'm thinking Toronto and Carolina are just bad right now. Not tanking.

[Locke]

Buffalo dismantled their team in the off-season, they were expected to suck and they are living up to their billing.

I'd say Arizona and Toronto are tanking. Things didnt go well early in the season and they've subsequently abandoned all pretense at even pretending to win.

Toronto should not be as bad as they are, they're not a good team but the East is a weak conference and I cant see a team going from a fairly steady playoff berth to complete garbage that fast without some 'internal directive.'

Edmonton....they're just no good.

You can tell when Edmonton is tanking, MacTavish and Lowe have that stupid smug grin on their faces and fans eat up the losses in anticipation of that first overall pick.

For the first time in a while they're losing constantly and it isnt on purpose and they arent happy about it. But they'll get no sympathy from me, they asked for this so its time for them to slurp their gruel.

[Buff]

I would not be disappointed to see McDavid or Eichel go to Toronto or any other team. As long as they don't go to Edmonton. I'm hoping Edmonton wins a few and picks 6th or 7th and picks a little bit off the board and that player turns out to be not so good for them. Then the Oilers have many more years of picking around 12th overall.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

I went with Arizona because they've been the most open about trading away their veterans. Buffalo is too, but I think Edmonton is just genuinely that bad.

When Arizona traded Dubnyk (9-5-2 record) to the Wild you knew they were in full tank mode. That was pretty despicable.

I don't believe players purposely tank but I do believe management puts their teams in position to lose and coaching staffs can be prodded to ease off the gas pedal. After seeing the Sabres come through Alberta you can't tell me those guys are being coached to win anything. Looked like a bunch of guys hired to just go out and pretend they are NHL players. No system, no game plan, no effort. Pretty embarrassing.

My list:

Sabres - management in full tank mode and coach following orders not to coach.
Oilers - organization in full tank mode but the head coach is trying his best to make a case for becoming the full time head coach
Carolina - roster is such a mess of overpaid crap and young players being counted on to carry the mail. Have been garbage for a few years now and nothing has changed this year. Not tanking just really bad mix of players.
Arizona - management in full tank mode but Tippet is still trying but his system only works when the goaltending is good and the GM ensured there would be no good goaltending for the rest of the season.
Toronto - players have quit but I don't think management is tanking. I believe management has realized that this group isn't good enough and are going to blow things up this summer.

So at the end of the day there's three teams that are tanking for the picks. I fear things could really get ugly in March when teams start jockeying for the 29th and 30th spots.

[btimbit]

Arizona and Buffalo Are the teams management has given up on.

Edmonton and Toronto just Suck. This is the best they can do

[Poe969]

I went with many. The oilers are perpetual tankers and never really try to get better it seems. They refuse to even acknowledge that they aren't a good team and only need time... The sabres just don't have anyone good...yet. I think they're just reaching about as low as they'll go and I think they'll start getting better next year. The coyotes are just selling off anything with value so although it may not be considered tanking, they don't seem like they're trying to put a winning team out. The leafs look like they're trying to lose though...it looks like that whole team has given up and management has accepted the fact that they're not good and will "ride this out" to see how good of a pick they can get.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Edmonton: The Tankeist Tankers whoever Tanked.

[Drury18]

Arizona has been tanking purposely since last season.

They were purposely trying to dump veteran contacts to bring the kids up. Kids who weren't ready or close to ready. I believe the difference between signing Vrbata (one of their best forwards) and losing him to Vancouver was less then $1M or so. Now they are publicly selling off players.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this Vegas "expansion" was actually the Coyotes moving to Vegas after they finished cleaning house of players and destroying the last of what they have in the desert.

Oh and Buffalo is just that terrible. If you look at the Amerks, they really don't have much in the minors to bank on either. There's just poor management planning there.