NHL will publicly document the draft lottery for the first time

[N-E-B]

I don't believe the draft is rigged. If it was, there's no way the Oilers would have had the first pick three years in a row.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

I'm starting to think they should televise a ping-pong ball draft for all non-playoff teams each year, making it a pretty good TV spectacle much like the first round of the draft itself.

The 14th-last team gets 14 balls in the pot; the 13th last gets 13 balls; and so on down to the last place team which gets only 1 ball in the pot.

The first team to have a ball sucked up by that vaccuumy thingy drafts 14th, the second drafts 13th, and so on. The last team to have a ball sucked up drafts 1st overall.

What would otherwise be a quick 5 minute event lasts an hour because of all the extra balls remaining from teams that have already been chosen getting in the way ("Argh, Winnipeg again!).

It could make great afternoon TV drinking stupidity with all sorts of shifting stats for talking heads to prattle on about.

Also lots of chances to use in conjunction the words "balls", "sucked", and "vaccuumy-thingy."

I've talked about something like this before. The Example of the system I have proposed before is.

30th = 1 Ball
29th = 2 Balls
28th = 4 Balls
27th = 8 Balls
26th = 16 Balls
25th = 20 Balls
24th = 20 Balls
23rd = 30 Balls
22nd = 30 Balls
21st = 40 Balls
20th = 40 Balls
19th = 50 Balls
18th = 50 Balls
17th = 60 Balls

You would need 13 sets of Balls for every team, so 4823 balls in total, in 182 different bags.

First draw is for 14th overall.

Dump all the balls out of the hopper.

While you are interviewing the GM of the team that just got stuck with with 14th overall, have 13 girls wearing team t-shirts that are too tight & yoga pants with Tim Hortons printed on their butts, dump a fresh set off balls for the 13 remaining teams into the hopper and spin it.

Then draw for 13th overall and repeat......

Could make the numbers of balls/ team whatever you want to adjust the odds, but I think the show would be better than what they do now.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by transplant99

yeah i agree....i don't think the NHL ever really thought of it as a TV event until recently however.

And IMO it really isn't one still....but there are those who will claim tinfoil shenanigans unless they see it with their own eyes....and even then there will be those who still won't believe it.

It's not a tinfoil shenanigan but as the saying goes,

Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.

so why can't it be done publicly.

As said it would make great TV and it was heavily discussed during the Crosby draft ten years ago so it isn't a recent thought.
This is a small step in the right direction.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

It's not a tinfoil shenanigan but as the saying goes,



so why can't it be done publicly.

As said it would make great TV and it was heavily discussed during the Crosby draft ten years ago so it isn't a recent thought.
This is a small step in the right direction.

Really?

I couldn't think of a thing on TV less captivating than drawing ping pong balls.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

so why can't it be done publicly.

As said it would make great TV and it was heavily discussed during the Crosby draft ten years ago so it isn't a recent thought.
This is a small step in the right direction.

It hasn't been broadcast before because it's boring as ####. It's four balls being drawn out of a total of 14 balls, followed by people searching a spreadsheet to find out which team corresponds to the winning combination.

People whined for years that they didn't show the drawing publicly, so they released a video of the drawing two years ago. That was so boring that people don't even remember that they made the lottery video publicly available two years ago and think that they're doing something unprecedented this year.



No one who has an actual financial stake in the results of the lottery have ever questioned the results.

It's actually pretty narcissistic for fans to think, "I don't care how many witnesses there are to the drawing. If they won't show it to ME, they must be hiding something!" Yeah, okay, Sherlock, Bettman slipped one past the 30 billionaires who keep him employed, but you cracked the case.


Really, if the owners all wanted to get together and agree on who should pick first overall, they wouldn't need to go through the charade of the lottery. They could just say, "Hey, we all agreed it's in the league's best interest that McDavid goes to Toronto, so the Leafs will pick first overall."

[flylock shox]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Really?

I couldn't think of a thing on TV less captivating than drawing ping pong balls.

Poker.

Lots of people watch that, and it is way less interesting than ping pong draws.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by getbak

It hasn't been broadcast before because it's boring as ####. It's four balls being drawn out of a total of 14 balls, followed by people searching a spreadsheet to find out which team corresponds to the winning combination.

People whined for years that they didn't show the drawing publicly, so they released a video of the drawing two years ago. That was so boring that people don't even remember that they made the lottery video publicly available two years ago and think that they're doing something unprecedented this year.



No one who has an actual financial stake in the results of the lottery have ever questioned the results.

It's actually pretty narcissistic for fans to think, "I don't care how many witnesses there are to the drawing. If they won't show it to ME, they must be hiding something!" Yeah, okay, Sherlock, Bettman slipped one past the 30 billionaires who keep him employed, but you cracked the case.


Really, if the owners all wanted to get together and agree on who should pick first overall, they wouldn't need to go through the charade of the lottery. They could just say, "Hey, we all agreed it's in the league's best interest that McDavid goes to Toronto, so the Leafs will pick first overall."

All right Sherlock, no ones accused them of rigging the draft but if you want to play that game, you're being the simpleton. Being publicly above board is a good and sensible move.

There are a lot better formats than looking it up on a spreadsheet. If the balls picked had an immediate and obvious effect, I'd watch it and I'd bet many others would too.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by transplant99

yeah i agree....i don't think the NHL ever really thought of it as a TV event until recently however.

And IMO it really isn't one still....but there are those who will claim tinfoil shenanigans unless they see it with their own eyes....and even then there will be those who still won't believe it.

Thats the thing about the tinfoil hatters though, even seeing it with their own eyes is insufficient. Their skepticism isnt grounded in any fact and so it cant be logically dispelled.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

All right Sherlock, no ones accused them of rigging the draft but if you want to play that game, you're being the simpleton. Being publicly above board is a good and sensible move.

There are a lot better formats than looking it up on a spreadsheet. If the balls picked had an immediate and obvious effect, I'd watch it and I'd bet many others would too.

People absolutely are accusing them of rigging the lottery.

After almost a decade, there are still people who think the Crosby lottery was rigged, despite the fact that Pittsburgh was one of four teams with the best odds of winning it.


I have no problem with people who want to watch the lottery because they want to watch the lottery. Hell, I'll likely watch it if it's televised.

The people I have a problem with are the ones who think that the league does it behind closed doors because they're hiding something, and not because they know people will get bored and change the channel if they televised it.


It's like when you're a kid and your mom asks you if you want to help her make cookies. You eagerly agree, then after about two minutes of measuring ingredients into the bowl, you're sitting there thinking, "I just wanted to eat some cookies. No one told me there would be math involved."


Sure, there are things they can do to spice it up and make it more interesting than someone searching a spreadsheet, but in its current format, that's ultimately all it is.

[Oil Stain]

They are going to fake the video, just like they faked the moon landing!

[Locke]

Came for moon landing reference. Leaving satisfied.

Carry on about your business.

[Gaudreau]

let em rig it so that Edmonton doesn't get it this year then we can start all this transparency next year

[Titan]

They should do a "live to the web" thing. I can see not televising it but I am probably not alone that I would "tune" in to watch it on a livestream. I like the numbered balls in the hopper thing but have them with the teams colours on them. I wonder about the statistical validity of the 14th worst having 14 balls, thing but I don't have the math chops to figure that out.

[Vulcan]

I know I enjoyed watching the 05 draft order being announced. I remember the look of disappointment on Sutter's face, and the gloating on Lowe's face when we got the 26th pick. That gloating was soon wiped out when the Oiler's drew the next pick at 25th though.

I think it would be even better if we could watch the ping pong balls being picked and there was an immediate result of the teams order in reverse. The first ball picked would be the 30th pick, etc.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Cant believe that anyone actually believes the draft has ever been rigged for one team or another.

Its ridiculous to think that the owners of 30 NHL teams all conspired to benefit only one team and at the same time the overseeing group of Deloitte Touche (or whatever they are called nowadays) would turn a blind eye thereby jeopardizing their entire billion dollar business....which would have to occur to make anything but a random event from happening.

You can't reason people out of an opinion they didn't reason themselves into in the first place.

[Clarkey]

This is not good news. Assuming the thing has been rigged in the past, I was hoping the league would skew it away from Edmonton for the optics to some other team I hate less.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

This is not good news. Assuming the thing has been rigged in the past,

The tinfoil shop is that way. --->

[ben voyonsdonc]

I posted this in another thread but this my idea as to how they can handle the draft lottery.

Have two lotteries:

1) Have 14 balls in a bag which go from 1-14. This lottery will determine how many of the bottom teams will have the highest percentage of winning the draft lottery. If the number 1 is picked, then the worst team will be the only team with the highest odds. If number 2 is picked, the two worst teams will get the highest odds. This would go all the way to number 14 and, in that case, all fourteen teams will have the same odds.

2) The true draft lottery will use the odds based on the first lottery to pick the first overall pick or could be used to pick the top 3 or 5.

Thoughts?

[GirlySports]

just televise it like the world cup draw

[SebC]

Marketing fail to not show it live.