The NHL Needs to Embrace the Gold Plan

[Itse]

Points percentage system would mean that the best draft picks would most likely go to the last teams out of the playoffs, but very randomly.

For example:
Team A is eliminated 15 rounds before the end. Goes on a massive streak, gets 25 points.
Team B is eliminated 1 round before the end. Wins last game against the Oilers.
Team C is eliminated 1 round before the end. Loses last game against the Presidents trophy winner.

1st pick Team B
2nd pick Team A
14th pick Team C


Doesn't make any sense. Might as well just randomize it.

[Da_Chief]

Make it simple. Want to avoid tanking?

Stanley cup winners get 1st overall. Last place team picks 30th.

You can forget about tanking after this one.

[stemit14]

Would just prefer a simple, tiered system of lottery odds. Every team not in the playoffs can win a lottery pick. Out of the 14 teams that don't make the playoffs... The ones ranked 30th to 21st have an even chance at the lottery. The ones ranked 20th to 17th have a slightly declining chance at winning the lottery.

This makes it so there is no motivation for teams to lose. The majority of teams ranked 20th to 17th will be fighting for a chance at playoffs right to the end of the season anyways so this has no effect on them. However, it makes it so winning or losing does not change the outcome of the lottery chances for the bottom 10 teams who likely know they aren't making the playoffs by the time March comes around.

Just as an example:

30th to 21st place teams: 9% chance of winning the draft lottery.

20th placed team: 5% chance

19th placed team: 3% chance

18th placed team: 1.5% chance

17th placed team: 0.5% chance

A system like this adjusts for the fact that the league has a lot of parity in it. The difference in talent between all of the bottom 10 teams isn't usually that much. Might also include a rule preventing a team from winning multiple lotteries over the span of 3 years... Though that rule would not be as vital cause the odds are even across so many teams.

Would still do 3 lotteries too for the top 3 picks. I like that addition by the NHL.



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[d_phaneuf]

I think they should stretch the odds out a bit more (not much but just even it a bit more, last place should have no more than 15%) and do the lottery for the top 5

but also implement some restrictions

can't pick 1st 2 years in a row
can't pick top 3 more than twice in 3 years
can't pick top 5 more than 3 times in 5 years

[powderjunkie]

My dream system:

30th-25th place = 10% odds
17th-24th = 5% odds

Draft for all positions 1-14.

Stipulation: Over a 5 year period, you can draft in the:
Top 1: once
Top 2: twice
Top 3: thrice
Top 4: four times

And I would implement it retroactively to include the previous 4 years right from the start; so if it started this year, the Oilers (1, 7, 3, 1) would draft 4th at the highest this year.

Live tv show with real ping pong balls. It would probably have to go from #1 down which doesn't really build to anything, but since everyone is in play for all spots the interest should last.

[calgaryblood]

This is one of the worst ways possible to decide draft rankings. A team that's eliminated early would have the best shot at winning which does nothing to combat "tanking".

A team who fought hard all season and still needs a top draft pick would be punished because the Oilers were eliminated 15 games ago? What a terrible, idiotic plan.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Just my 2 cents but no thanks. The new rules are an improvement. The gold plan would make it worse. The NHL should take away the need for teams to try and game the system, not reward the teams that best and first figure out how to game the new system.

In a cap world every team can be competitive and high draft picks have become by far the most valuable thing for any team. It's asinine that they distribute that talent by how hard teams try NOT to win and punish the teams that do. Bring on the wonder wheel.

[Strange Brew]

The guiding principle of the draft order in every pro sports league in NA is to foster competitive balance and help bad teams get better. Under that principle, these alternatives just won't work. It sucks royally that the Oilers get first pick year after year, but the whole purpose of the draft order is to help a team like that.

[FireGilbert]

The new system is a great improvement, let's see how it works for a few years. The only changes I'd like are evening the odds even more and drawing for the first five picks.

[calgarywinning]

Agreed. Here you have an organization so fundamentally flawed that they are flushing talent that may have panned out better, which leads to better hockey, on other teams. Give them another 5 1st overalls...

Even Connor's face revealed how he felt about the Oilers winning first overall. It's definitely pointed out the flaw in the system. Because a team, an organization and talent are more than the raw component of players that are poorly coached, managed or whatever the heck is going on up there.

Cheering for tanking is bad.

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

The guiding principle of the draft order in every pro sports league in NA is to foster competitive balance and help bad teams get better. Under that principle, these alternatives just won't work. It sucks royally that the Oilers get first pick year after year, but the whole purpose of the draft order is to help a team like that.

[Mony]

The Gold Plan isn't really needed. Like others have already stated, it pretty much gives incentive for teams to tank earlier to accumulate the points.

Instead, cap the # of times one team can pick so high. 1st overall = twice in 5 year period max, etc. That's the best way I believe.

Plus, roster players don't really care about the draft. Management is the one that sweats over the lottery odds, not players.

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by Mony

The Gold Plan isn't really needed. Like others have already stated, it pretty much gives incentive for teams to tank earlier to accumulate the points.

Instead, cap the # of times one team can pick so high. 1st overall = twice in 5 year period max, etc. That's the best way I believe.

Plus, roster players don't really care about the draft. Management is the one that sweats over the lottery odds, not players.

I disagree that it gives teams incentive to tank earlier. There's no way to be mathematically eliminated much earlier than teams are now. Teams might be eliminated a game or two earlier but that's it.

I think there will be ranking no matter what, at least this gives us fans a reason to cheer for wins.

[PeteMoss]

If you're completely embarassing and eliminated way earlier than everyone else, very unlikely you're going to suddenly become good enough to earn a bunch of points to put everyone else away on this plan.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

The guiding principle of the draft order in every pro sports league in NA is to foster competitive balance and help bad teams get better. Under that principle, these alternatives just won't work. It sucks royally that the Oilers get first pick year after year, but the whole purpose of the draft order is to help a team like that.

This. Bad teams getting the best prospects isn't a bug of the system, it's a feature. At least in the eyes of the owners, and they're the ones who run the league.

[StrykerSteve]

My suggestion:

- Lottery is for all teams that missed the playoffs (picks 1-14).
- Even odds for each and every team at the lottery.
- The exception to this, is a team cannot win a top 3 pick if they chose in one of those spots the previous year.
- So the NHL does two separate draws, one for picks 1-3 and another for picks 4-14.
- Picks 15-30 are based on playoff results.

That's it. Pretty simple. The idea of "tanking" is 100% eliminated.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

The guiding principle of the draft order in every pro sports league in NA is to foster competitive balance and help bad teams get better. Under that principle, these alternatives just won't work. It sucks royally that the Oilers get first pick year after year, but the whole purpose of the draft order is to help a team like that.

I agree with this, but is 30th really that much more deserving than 29th? Or 26th? It's not so bad with the schedule more evened out as it is now, but it's still not a totally even schedule.

[FurnaceFace]

Can we have another weasel out option of "Give the current system time"?

Running simulations the current system brings interesting results. There are a bunch of sim sites out there but for the one I ran, my results were the last place team ended up with one of the top 3 picks in 55 of 100 runs. In the 100 runs each non playoff team won the lottery at least once. Perhaps they have got the weighing right or are very close.

(For those curious The Flames 1st-2nd-3rd results were 9-12-10, 30% chance of top 3)

[PlayfulGenius]

Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef

I think this is an absolutely stupid idea. All it will do is have teams throwing in the towel at Christmas rather than the deadline just so they have more time to accumulate points.

I don't see this happening, at all...teams are much more likely to attempt to get back in the race, such as the Ducks did this year.

There's no way we see teams start to throw it in that early.

[djsFlames]

I like it, it makes sense.

Even the worst teams aren't eliminated until at least mid february. To put out a memo amongst your club to throw games before that would be an absolute disservice to your fanbase, and beyond pathetic. Why would teams do this? Makes no sense.

What it does is reward winning cultures and teams trying to improve over all 82 games. In this type of setup teams like Edmonton would be screwed, and rightfully so. But it might even benefit them and their fans in that their whole organization would be throwing in even the kitchen sink to try and do better, rather than fizzle out and be okay with that.

I see very little downside to it. Then you could look up a second set of standings late in the season and get excited about it - not for losses, but for wins and success. It's great.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Mony

The Gold Plan isn't really needed. Like others have already stated, it pretty much gives incentive for teams to tank earlier to accumulate the points.

Instead, cap the # of times one team can pick so high. 1st overall = twice in 5 year period max, etc. That's the best way I believe.

Plus, roster players don't really care about the draft. Management is the one that sweats over the lottery odds, not players.

If players don't care about the draft then why would they throw away games early to accumulate draft points?



The only thing teams can do is have their coaches sit key players for games in January and you could easily counteract that with a correspondent fine. But 90% of teams at that point are still looking to claw back in.