Edmonton wins draft lottery

[Todd Bersnoozi]

Well, Pittsburgh won and competes with basically two guys: Sid & Malkin. The rest of the team is filled with plumbers. Marc-Andre is ok I guess, but I wouldn't say he's a top goalie.

You do realize that good NHL teams require competent defencemen, forward depth and a decent goaltender to compete for the cup don't you ? Not to mention a GM and a president that would have trouble running a used furniture outlet let alone an NHL team would tend to be a bit of a red flag for any organization.

[Blob Mckenzie]

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Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik, Zybnek Michalek, Jordan Staal, Paul Martin, Steve Sullivan and Chris Kunitz say hi.

[Farhan Lalji]

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Kris Letang says f u to Blobby for forgetting to mention his name!

[dbr]

James Neal, too.

Well, Pittsburgh won and competes with basically two guys: Sid & Malkin. The rest of the team is filled with plumbers. Marc-Andre is ok I guess, but I wouldn't say he's a top goalie.

If Edmonton ever drafts a player of the calibre of Crosby or Malkin then we'll talk.

Until then we are talking about a bunch of good young players who will make the Oilers talented enough in their top six to compare with such Stanley Cup Contenders as the Anaheim Ducks... oh wait the Ducks are terrible now that their depth and elite defensemen (almost all acquired via trade and free agency) are gone. Just like the Oilers will continue to be until they clean house in the front office.

[Hockey Widow]

I think you have to take the best player available, enough said. The Oilers have so many young guns they can afford to make a trade to get a goalie and some defence. Drafting a D man will not help them for a few years but trading a Gagne or Hall will or at least should get them some talent that can play now.

[RoyalDude]

Talk about an oxymoron but Kevin Lowe and Steve Tambellini should be ashamed for getting the first pick 3 years in a row. "How does it feel Kevin and Steve, to be shitty managers, job well done?" I really do hate rewarding the worst management of the year with the top pick. It really has to be changed.

[Blob Mckenzie]

Talk about an oxymoron but Kevin Lowe and Steve Tambellini should be ashamed for getting the first pick 3 years in a row. "How does it feel Kevin and Steve, to be shitty managers, job well done?" I really do hate rewarding the worst management of the year with the top pick. It really has to be changed.

Thet will stay a garbage team as long as those two clowns are running the show. They are still 5 or 6 players away from being competitive. By that time they will have to pay all the young guns 5- 7 million a season and will have little room for anyone else.

[RoyalDude]

I know change is a real difficult thing with the old guard Hockey rednecks back east, but if there is one change to the draft that should be made, something that would be rewarding the best teams in the league, is reverse the order when the 2nd round begins, ie, the team picking 30th, the Stanley Cup Winner then picks again right away getting the 30th pick and then the 1st pick of the 2nd round, I think that may be a good way to reward 'good management'. No way should the 31st pick go to the worst team in the league. They, the Tambellin's, Lowe's, Howson's of the world, should be getting the 60th pick of the 2nd round, no fucking argument. Why am I not running things around here?

[dbr]

I really do hate rewarding the worst management of the year with the top pick. It really has to be changed.

Shrug. It helped turn the Canucks around once, and most of the teams with the worst management don't really improve significantly after picking up top picks (look at the Islanders, Panthers, Blue Jackets, Thrashers, etc) so it's not like we're seeing awful management groups getting their teams to the late rounds of the playoffs or anything like that.

I don't know why anyone thinks top picks are some kind of panacea for terrible NHL teams. The Senators never picked below 3rd in the 1992-96 span (three number ones) and while it helped them build a winner in the early 00's it wasn't necessarily the high picks that did it. They took Yashin (traded for Chara and Spezza - wow - by the time they were contenders), Daigle, Bonk, Berard (traded for Redden by the time they were contenders) and Phillips with their high picks, but they also scooped the following players in the later rounds - Daniel Alfredsson (133rd), Sami Salo (239th), Andreas Dackell, Brad Larsen, Stan Neckar, Pavol Demitra, Patrick Traverse. Nobody else played even 50 games in the NHL.

They pulled 12 NHLers from five drafts, no more than some teams drafting at the end of each round. Some players were busts, some were simply never elite players, some took years to develop and moved on before reaching that status and a few others made significant contributions to the Senators organization. Two of the best players were taken after every team had multiple opportunities to select them.

The bottom line is that the Oilers are giving themselves a great opportunity - but they will have a few players bust, they will have to develop and handle some players properly or lose their potential, a few will be good players for them for a long time, and they'll have to make the right moves with the rest to ensure they complement them with a solid team.

They will still have to draft well in the late rounds, trade well, make some key free agent signings.. not their current GM's strong point.

Re: your subsequent suggestion (reverse the order each round), sure. I've love for the Canucks to pick 30th and 31st this year.

[RoyalDude]

I really do hate rewarding the worst management of the year with the top pick. It really has to be changed.

Shrug. It helped turn the Canucks around once, and most of the teams with the worst management don't really improve significantly after picking up top picks (look at the Islanders, Panthers, Blue Jackets, Thrashers, etc) so it's not like we're seeing awful management groups getting their teams to the late rounds of the playoffs or anything like that.

I don't know why anyone thinks top picks are some kind of panacea for terrible NHL teams.

Maybe you should ask the Blackhawks (Toews, Kane) or the Penguins (Malkin, Crosby, Staal, Fleury) if they feel this way, and after that the Capitals (Ovechkin), if you think stinking one year or two years in a row, or in the Penguins case - 4 years in a row, doesn't make you an eventual winner.

And regarding the Canucks, I don't think we picked up 3 top 5 picks in a row.

You would see lousy management make a better effort to improve their teams on a yearly basis with more onus on winning in the now. You also wouldn't see management throwing in the towel of their struggling team half way through the season just to put themselves in position of getting that first pick. It's called quitting, geez, I wish I got rewarded for quitting things in my life.

It's a lame way to build a winner.

Anyhow, I don't see the harm in reversing the order of the draft to begin the 2nd round. Why not reward good management? I know I might be out of order regarding the first overall pick, but I think it would make things interesting if all 30 teams were rewarded just one ball each when they roll the draft lottery balls to see who picks first and so on. Then come the 2nd round, you go back to the old system of, teams picking by where they finished in the league, with the worst team getting pick 31. Why Not?

[dbr]

Maybe you should ask the Blackhawks (Toews, Kane) or the Penguins (Malkin, Crosby, Staal, Fleury) if they feel this way, and after that the Capitals (Ovechkin)

I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of it as I think I've already done that in this thread but both the Blackhawks and Penguins have made several smart moves to get their team to where it is (or where it was when they won the Cup) - sure drafting at the top of the order helped but they also made great late round picks, great trades, signed key players in unrestricted free agency.

The Caps tanked at the right time - I don't see an Alexander Ovechkin calibre player coming down the pipe for the Oilers - and have also made some intelligent moves to add to their core. Still, they haven't made enough of them and they are not playoff contenders (and arguably never have been).

And regarding the Canucks, I don't think we picked up 3 top 5 picks in a row.

We picked in the top 3 twice in one year.

Still, the point is we did it once and it (along with other moves) revitalized the franchise. I wouldn't turn my nose up at the draft structure that allowed that, just because teams circling the drain year after year get high picks and don't turn around.

What do you want, a term limit on 1st overall?

You would see lousy management make a better effort to improve their teams on a yearly basis with more onus on winning in the now. You also wouldn't see management throwing in the towel of their struggling team half way through the season just to put themselves in position of getting that first pick. It's called quitting, geez, I wish I got rewarded for quitting things in my life.

Yeah well, the NHL can't just let its teams fold because they hired the wrong GM and didn't fire him in time. Sure it'd be great as an upper crust team to see the loser franchises "held accountable" for their terrible on ice product, but it's not going to happen.

Put it this way, if an NHL franchise folds that's 1/30 of the league gone. That's significant. If you quit everything and become a miserable failure that's 1/30 000 000 of our society down the tubes.

Anyhow, I don't see the harm in reversing the order of the draft to begin the 2nd round. I know I might be out of order regarding the first overall pick, but I think it would make things interesting if all 30 teams were rewarded just one ball each when the roll the draft lottery balls to see who picks first and so on. Why Not?

Yeah I don't have any real problem with this.. change the odds of the lottery, reverse the order in the even numbered rounds, whatever.

[RoyalDude]

sure drafting at the top of the order helped but they also made great late round picks, great trades, signed key players in unrestricted free agency.

Then if drafting first overall or picking in the top 5 is not the only way to building a winner then giving every team one ball each in the draft lottery is not such a bad idea. I think the fans might appreciate the fact that the management of their team would ice better product to show their loyalty to their paying fans on a season to season basis.

[Hockey Widow]

Wasn't the second round reverse order at one time? I do like that idea RD. I also like the idea of a full draft lottery so that all teams have an equal chance of picking 1-30. But it will never happen on our watch. And of course when our inevitable decline begins I may change my mind.

[dbr]

I think that giving all 30 teams a shot would be great, a happy medium would be still giving the teams at the bottom of the standings greater odds.

And of course if the Bruins win a lottery and pick 1st overall, you know the conspiracy theories will be running rampant..

[RoyalDude]

Wasn't the second round reverse order at one time? I do like that idea RD. I also like the idea of a full draft lottery so that all teams have an equal chance of picking 1-30. But it will never happen on our watch. And of course when our inevitable decline begins I may change my mind.

Curious as to why they changed if it once was? It doesn't make sense to reward the shittiest team with the 1st overall and 31st overall. It makes total sense to reward the Stanley Cup winner for good management etc, with giving them the next pick - 31st right after they picked 30th. I think that would be a nice happy medium.