Quote:
Originally Posted by browna
As for the Dallas pick, an early/first team out of the playoffs for Dallas would would be no better than 46th?
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Elimination order doesn't matter for teams that lose in the first two rounds (remember last season, the Flames still had the 15th pick even though they went to the second round).
Right now, Dallas is 3rd overall (tied with Chicago, but Chicago has the tiebreaker) and second in the Central. If the standings finished the same as they are today, and Dallas doesn't make the Conference Finals, their pick would be between 52 and 56, depending on how many regular season Division winners make it to the Conference Finals.
The bottom four spots in the Draft go to the four Conference finalists. Then, the next group of picks go to the regular season Division winners. Then, the next group goes to the remaining eliminated playoff teams.
Take, for example today's standings:
Washington, Chicago, LA, and Florida are the four Division leaders. Dallas is the highest-ranked non-leader, tied in points with Chicago and ahead of LA and Florida in points.
Let's take a case where none of the Division leaders qualify for the Conference Finals (and Dallas doesn't either)...
ECF: Tampa vs NY Rangers
WCF: Anaheim vs St Louis
SCF: Blues defeat Rangers
In that scenario:
St Louis would get the 30th pick; the Rangers would get 29th; Tampa would be 28th; Anaheim would be 27th.
The Division leaders would then get the next four slots (even though Dallas has more points than some of them): Washington at 26th; Chicago at 25th; LA at 24th; and Florida at 23rd.
Dallas, as the highest-ranked non-Division winner, would then pick 22nd. The Flames would get their second-rounder and pick 52nd.
Their pick will move down one for every Division leader that makes the Conference Finals, and moves into the bottom four if they make the Conference Finals themselves.
This may seem like an unlikely scenario, but the exact thing happened two seasons ago. St Louis finished 4th overall, one point behind Colorado for the Division lead, but the Blues ended up getting the 22nd pick because none of the Division leaders went to the Conference Finals.