Once again, the NHL draft lottery ended up benefiting playoff bubble teams while hurting the bottom feeders. It’s simply time for the league to change its lottery system.
The 2019 NHL draft lottery certainly came with a handful of surprises. None were bigger than the Chicago Blackhawks, who only missed the playoffs by six points, moving up to the third overall pick.
Chicago had a very low 8.2 percent chance of landing a top-three selection, having finished 20th in the NHL standings. A team consisting of future Hall of Famers Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Patrick Kane, and some young studs in Alex DeBrincat (a 41-goal scorer) and Dylan Strome is about to get richer. As if those three Stanley Cup championship rings weren’t enough.
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The New Jersey Devils landed the first overall pick, while the New York Rangers moved up to the second overall pick. But since they finished 29th and 26th, respectively, in the league standings, it’s hard to get upset over those two teams moving up.
At the same time, it’s hard not to feel bad for the Colorado Avalanche (they owned the Ottawa Senators first round pick), and Los Angeles Kings.
Say the Sens keep that pick, and after a dismal 64-point season, they move back to fourth. There’d be outrage. But because Colorado is in the playoffs, there won’t be as much public outcry about them moving down three spots.
The Kings were the NHL’s second-worst team this season, yet they’re moving down to the fifth pick. Colorado and Los Angeles pick lower than Chicago, a team loaded with stars that almost made the playoffs. There’s a lot wrong with all of this. And 2019 is not the first time where the NHL’s lottery system reared its ugly head.
In 2016, the 25th-placed Winnipeg Jets, loaded with young stars, moved up to the second pick and selected Patrik Laine. The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks were far inferior teams that year and they both missed out on the chance to draft a generational sniper. Mind you, it’s hard to feel bad for the Oilers after picking first overall four times from 2010 to 2015. But you get the point.
Colorado was the NHL’s worst team by a distant margin in 2017, finishing with a woeful 48 points. The Canucks were 29th with 69 points, followed by the Arizona Coyotes (70 points) and New Jersey (also 70 points). Taylor Hall‘s team won the draft lottery that year, and New Jersey wound up taking Nico Hischier with the first selection.
Meanwhile, the 19th-placed Philadelphia Flyers moved up to the second pick and selected Nolan Patrick. The 24th-placed Dallas Stars landed the third pick and took stud defenseman Miro Heiskanen.
The Avalanche moved down to fourth, the Canucks to fifth and the Coyotes to seventh (they later traded that pick to the Rangers). How does it make sense for the NHL’s three worst teams to move down in the lottery while two mediocre teams moved up to pick in the top three?
The Buffalo Sabres, after years of little draft lottery luck, finished 31st last year and earned the top selection where they took franchise defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. But the flawed lottery system came into play again, when the 21st-placed Carolina Hurricanes moved up to the second pick and got Andrei Svechnikov. The 30th-place Ottawa Senators wound up with Brady Tkachuk, so you won’t hear many complaints.
But more often than not, the NHL draft lottery seems to hurt the true bottom feeders while benefiting one or two teams that barely missed out on the playoffs. The NBA lottery system doesn’t work like that. So why does the NHL do it?
Former NHL general manager and executive Brian Burke recently proposed two excellent ideas on Sportsnet. First, only let five teams enter the lottery. Secondly, teams shouldn’t be able to pick first overall more than once every three years. His suggestions also included a system which would prevent teams from being able to consistently pick in the top three.
There are different ways the NHL can work around fixing its system. If they rightfully make the change, there are two key points to address. First of all, the bottom five teams need better chances to win the lottery. They finished at the bottom for a reason, and those teams need the top picks the most. Secondly, playoff bubble teams like this year’s Blackhawks and the 2016-17 Flyers shouldn’t be able to move into the top three.
This may or may not be a key talking point in the next CBA, but it absolutely should be. The NHL needs to go back to its old format and only give the worst teams a real chance at the lottery. The draft lottery system is flawed and downright unfair, and it can’t go on any longer at this stage.