Is the Draft Lottery Fixed?

[senor_incendiarse]

How can you not see it???

 

Buffalo traded their starting goalie 3 times this season , the final time for an average backup.. they traded arguable their best defenseman , and a quality forward for a guy that cant even play this year .. could have made the same trade in the offseason

Jonas Enroth himself was just quoted the other day saying it was clear their job this year was to lose--  Tim Murray saying he dreamed and obsessed with McDavid didnt help , nor apologizing to the fans after losing the lottery 

 

Phoenix and Toronto both publicly declared a strip down rebuild mid way thru the season ,,Devan Dubnyk for the most part was traded because he was actually doing well there(granted not as well as he did in Minnesota)

 

Edmonton was the microcosm of tanking until the end of the season when they did a little mini wn spurt once it became apparent nobody was catching Buffalo... people have known for years management was inept there and they wait to win the lottery before FINALLY putting competent management in place..might even hire a real coach now too

 

 

please , these teams blatantly tanked it.. and im personally proud of the flames for not doing it...  as much as i agree with supporting the legitimately weak, the draft has become a farce.. non weighted is likely the only way to finally make games mean something again .. bottom teams(all non playoff). 1 team, one ball.. pull em one by one

I don't like what Buffalo did with the goalies, but its not like they were anywhere near contention with them, so maybe they aren't in his long term plans anyways.  Enroth wasn't exactly lights out in Dallas either.  As for the Myers trade, if your not in it this year think of the next few, if Kane gets his head straight he could really enjoy playing with the young centres they will have, Bogo also isn't too bad either.  I don't think it was a team mandate that made Cody Hodgson score 30 less points this year either.  Think of what it must be like to be a sports fan in Buffalo.  Zero championships, 4 straight Superbowl L's, lost Stanley Cup in '99 on a controversial goal, make it to back to back conference championships in '06 and '07 when most teams are able to add missing pieces via free agency, instead they lose 2 of their best players.  The time they finally are able to land sought after free agents it was Erhoff and Leino.  Couldn't imagine wanting anything else but hoping to land a big prize in the draft and surround him with a good young core and hope they can bring a new attitude towards playing in the city.

 

I don't look at the draft as needing a major overhaul.  There isn't a McDavid or Crosby every year, you don't have to go too far to see where teams have passed up on better players with the highest picks.  '06 Johnson and Staal go 1-2, followed by better players in Toews, Backstrom and Kessel.  If I'd redo the '12 draft I'd probably go with Lindholm over the 5 guys picked above him.  Or a neat little fact, right now from the '11 draft there are two players with a higher points per game than RNH, one went in the 4th round and is loved in these parts, and the other was the 4th last player selected.

[kehatch]

How can you not see it???

Buffalo traded their starting goalie 3 times this season , the final time for an average backup.. they traded arguable their best defenseman , and a quality forward for a guy that cant even play this year .. could have made the same trade in the offseason

Jonas Enroth himself was just quoted the other day saying it was clear their job this year was to lose-- Tim Murray saying he dreamed and obsessed with McDavid didnt help , nor apologizing to the fans after losing the lottery

Phoenix and Toronto both publicly declared a strip down rebuild mid way thru the season ,,Devan Dubnyk for the most part was traded because he was actually doing well there(granted not as well as he did in Minnesota)

Edmonton was the microcosm of tanking until the end of the season when they did a little mini wn spurt once it became apparent nobody was catching Buffalo... people have known for years management was inept there and they wait to win the lottery before FINALLY putting competent management in place..might even hire a real coach now too

please , these teams blatantly tanked it.. and im personally proud of the flames for not doing it... as much as i agree with supporting the legitimately weak, the draft has become a farce.. non weighted is likely the only way to finally make games mean something again .. bottom teams(all non playoff). 1 team, one ball.. pull em one by one

Toronto was in a playoff spot and clearly wanted to stay there. Edmonton expected themselves to be competitive. Bring sellers at the deadline isn't tanking. Arizona has been consistently competitive. They had no choice but to rebuild. They are one of those legitimately bad you are referring to.

Buffalo was the only team that tanked. Changing the entire system to such a degree for that doesn't make sense.

It's moot though. It's not going to happen.

[Flyerfan52]

Totals.  Players play to win.  Coaches coach to win.

 

When it comes to GMs (and upper management in general), it's a different story.  Like you said, sometimes they are an owner's puppet doing the dirty work for them.  They are more than willing to trade anything that has value at the trade deadline for picks so they can slide down the standings.  GMs usually get a longer leash to build a team so one or two years of tanking is tolerable, and sometimes encouraged.

 

 

This exactly.  Imagine GMs and owners not having the option to tank.  The only way out of being bad is winning your way out, developing the prospects you have, and signing good UFAs.

 

Lastly, it's not exactly crippling to a rebuild to draft say #8 instead of #3.  Obviously, there's an advantage drafting top 3 but to say it gives rebuilding teams no hope of parity is going too far.

The Jets inherited a team that had made the playoffs once in 12 years (missed 4 straight before relocation). That inheritance consisted of a few vets that had learned their trade in better organizations & some former high picks immediately handed high profile positions by the mis-management in Atlanta so needed to start with overhauling the management. Said new people even had a hard time finding game film of the players they were to manage/coach & met many of them for the 1st time when training camp opened. In their 4th year they qualified for the playoffs (even if a 1 & done) while their highest draft pick was that #7 the Thrashers sent. During those 4 years they were often officially eliminated with only days left in the season.

In 2013 the Flames traded Iginla marking the start of a rebuild. BB was brought aboard & hired Treliving signaling a change in management. Hartley was hired to coach a few retained players like Gio, Glencross & the like as they knew vets are required both to try to keep games respectable & mentor young players rather than have them grow up in an atmosphere where losing becomes routine. They hadn't qualified since 2008-09 but in the 2nd year after starting the rebuild went to the 2nd round of the playoffs. The 4 years of missing saw them pick 13, 21, 6 & 4.

It seems when a team misses the play-offs for a few years an overhaul of management works better @ turning the tide than amassing very high draft picks.

 

A few former glory teams recently known more for futility than winning ways seem to have finally realized that. There have been major shakeups in a # of team headquarters. The biggest thing is ownership has to allow the professionals they hire to change that team rather than stick their own fingers in the brew.