[GDT] 2017 NHL DRAFT LOTTERY, 5:30PM MT (NBC, Sportsnet, CBC and TVA Sports)

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Honestly, the Devils needed this as much as anyone. Dallas and Philadelphia... not so much. But hey, Dallas can pick Liljegren and shore up that blue line.

[MisterJoji]

I can understand why Vancouver, Buffalo and Colorado are pissed but thanks to the Oilers, bottom feeders, despite having the highest odds to pick #1, still have a combined odds of 40.4% of one of those 3 getting #1 (50.7% if you include LV). The results weren't that uncommon. In fact it's way more likely we won't see the worst team get #1 pick in future drafts. NHL team can send their thanks to Kevin Lowe's front porch, via a brown bag lit on fire.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Still mildly surprised Edmonton didn't win the lottery.

[The Fonz]

Originally Posted by guuar

In your average draft year it doesn't matter if you are #1 or #6. It's only certain years where obviously elite players that can single handedly change a franchise's fortune that make losing a lottery draft hurt.

Let's look each of the 10 x drafts between 2001-2010:

Hall-1 > Niederreiter-6
Tavares-1 > Schenn-6
Stamkos-1 > Filatov-6
Kane-1 > Gagner-6
Johnson-1 ~ Brassard-6
Crosby-1 > Brule-6
Ovechkin-1 > Montoya-6
Fleury-1 > Michalek-6
Nash-1 > Upshall-6
Kovalchuk-1 > Koivu-6

It's not even close.

We can't even begin to analyze who will have the better career for players drafted in 2011 or later - they're still kids.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I don't think Philly is as bad as their record showed last season. Drafting 2nd is going really going to propel them.

It's one of the reasons that I think the draft lottery weighting is over-compensation now that the league has relative parity.

These results are exactly what I want. I've never liked the fact that the best young players always went to the worst franchises, where they generally toil away in futility with sucky linemates at least for the first few years, if not longer.

I want to see young players play meaningful hockey with decent linemates.

The draft should help weaker teams short on young talent, not save teams from their inability to hockey. Colorado and Canucks dug their own holes, they can rot for all I care.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Itse

These results are exactly what I want. I've never liked the fact that the best young players always went to the worst franchises, where they generally toil away in futility with sucky linemates at least for the first few years, if not longer.

I want to see young players play meaningful hockey with decent linemates.

The draft should help weaker teams short on young talent, not save teams from their inability to hockey. Colorado and Canucks dug their own holes, they can rot for all I care.

I agree the results are better now. In fact, I would prefer to see every non-playoff team get equal weighting.

Or 3 separate lotteries. One for the bottom 10 teams (for draft positions 1-10), one or the middle 10 teams (for positions 11-20) and a third lottery for the final draft positions.

There is so much parity now, that standings are really a poor indicator of how much talent a team has, or how much potential they have the following year (or in the following few seasons when most prospects actually make the leap). The NHL has made strides to make the draft more fair, but it is still not balanced relative to the parity brought on by the salary cap and lowered age of free-agency.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Geeoff

I think it's nice that the top 3 are all teams that tried to win this year and will try to win again next year.

I don't know if I'd say all three were trying to win. The Devils finished one point ahead of Vancouver and were tied with Arizona. The Devils and Avs were the only two teams in the league this year to not win 30 games.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by guuar

Calgary was VERY high on Barkov that year. They had a number of scouts and even past players that were all chirping at the scouts and feaster that Barkov should be the target.

Calgary liked Barkov when they were picking 6th. If they were picking first, they probably take Mackinnon. The talk then was always "out of Barkov, Linholm and Monahan, what centre will be left at 6?" No one had much doubt Mackinnon wouldn't be first overall, no matter who picked.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

We can't even begin to analyze who will have the better career for players drafted in 2011 or later - they're still kids.

True, though I will take bets on Ekblad versus Virtanen and McDavid versus Zacha.

LOL - just was looking at the draft orders on wikipedia and someone hacked 2016 to switch Matthews with some made up guy.

[Roof-Daddy]

BARDOWN

How the last five drafts would have happened with this years lottery results

Flames get Risto instead of Monahan in 2013
Flames get Fleury instead of Bennett in 2014
Flames get Matthews instead of Tkachuk in 2016

Best part, McDinglenuts is all the way over in Carolina, and the coilers end up with Zacha instead.

I'd take those results.