NHL DRAFT: Should there be a restriction on how many times a team can draft in the top 5 within 5 a year span

[MoneypuckOverlord]

Why are people wanting to punish teams that don't improve? You might as well throw the whole draft system out the window in that case.

The NFL, one of the most competitive, and money making leagues in North America has the draft the way the NHL used to be.

Where you finish, is where you get your pick. Finish last you pick first overall. Win the Super Bowl you pick last.

No stupid lottery picks, no gimmicks. The only reason Edmonton is not competitive is their scouts suck. They have drafted all the same type of player. Ironically all those who push for "draft the best player available", should look at Edmonton. They have drafted BPA, and they still sit at the bottom of the standings. A proper GM would have traded Yak for a defenseman, or traded the first overall pick to move down in the draft an pick up a franchise D-man.

High draft picks don't always mean you're getting a stud. Patrick Stefan ring a bell? Getting high draft picks won't help you if your GM and scouts don't have a clue of what they are doing.

Long and short. What kind of league do we want? A level playing field? Or a league where the best teams stay on top and small market or teams that struggle NEVER get a chance to improve.

The NHL had the the Draft right before Bettmann and his stupid NBA style draft system came into the league.

We don't wish to do that, but what Edmonton has done is, blantley and obviously taking advantage of such system, and they shouldn't be rewarded, cause they were losing on purpose, just for a higher pick. We are not punishing a bad team, but they didn't even try, it's unfair, it's cheating, and uncalled for. No team should be able to get consecutive 1st overall picks, cause Kevin Lowe is hoping one day, all those accumalated1st overall picks, his team will be the next dynasty team.

I am totally for some sort of system that makes it very hard to get consecutive 1st overall picks, infact I think the 1st 4 picks, or 5 picks should be a lottery.

[Sugar baby watermelon]

DJ Dave please dont be playing All night long why??

[Dogbyte]

..

[elvis15]

We don't wish to do that, but what Edmonton has done is, blantley and obviously taking advantage of such system, and they shouldn't be rewarded, cause they were losing on purpose, just for a higher pick. We are not punishing a bad team, but they didn't even try, it's unfair, it's cheating, and uncalled for. No team should be able to get consecutive 1st overall picks, cause Kevin Lowe is hoping one day, all those accumalated1st overall picks, his team will be the next dynasty team.

I am totally for some sort of system that makes it very hard to get consecutive 1st overall picks, infact I think the 1st 4 picks, or 5 picks should be a lottery.

You think Edmonton is only losing because it's on purpose? They're losing because they aren't a good team p and having top draft picks hasn't helped that at all.

[Monteeun]

Why are people wanting to punish teams that don't improve? You might as well throw the whole draft system out the window in that case.

The NFL, one of the most competitive, and money making leagues in North America has the draft the way the NHL used to be.

Where you finish, is where you get your pick. Finish last you pick first overall. Win the Super Bowl you pick last.

No stupid lottery picks, no gimmicks. The only reason Edmonton is not competitive is their scouts suck. They have drafted all the same type of player. Ironically all those who push for "draft the best player available", should look at Edmonton. They have drafted BPA, and they still sit at the bottom of the standings. A proper GM would have traded Yak for a defenseman, or traded the first overall pick to move down in the draft an pick up a franchise D-man.

High draft picks don't always mean you're getting a stud. Patrick Stefan ring a bell? Getting high draft picks won't help you if your GM and scouts don't have a clue of what they are doing.

Long and short. What kind of league do we want? A level playing field? Or a league where the best teams stay on top and small market or teams that struggle NEVER get a chance to improve.

The NHL had the the Draft right before Bettmann and his stupid NBA style draft system came into the league.

What was the rule before?

[hockey21383]

Edmonton doesn't have bad scouting, it's just the best players in their particular drafts are not players like Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, Kane, Stamkos, Tavares etc...

[JeremyCuddles]

Edmonton doesn't have bad scouting, it's just the best players in their particular drafts are not players like Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, Kane, Stamkos, Tavares etc...

They have either bad player development or bad management not complimenting these young guys with veteran leaders and defence, or both.

[snipe]

If the highlight of the season for you as a hockey fan is getting a top 5 draft pick because your team is miserable, please let them have it... Don't take away hope from a struggling market... You do that, you lose more Canadian teams.

[thema]

This just in: no NHL player ever tanks. Possibly a team might try to ice a non competitive team but the actual players playing won't tank because they know full well they could be tanking themselves out of a job. To suggest that a whole team, players and management would tank is unrealistic to say the least.

[terrible.dee]

This just in: no NHL player ever tanks. Possibly a team might try to ice a non competitive team but the actual players playing won't tank because they know full well they could be tanking themselves out of a job. To suggest that a whole team, players and management would tank is unrealistic to say the least.

I know!

Everyone is freaking out about teams tanking but it practically NEVER happens.

I think Ottawa did something suspicious in the 90's, but other than that I can't ever remember a team even being accused of it

[VC420]

I believe all top 10 teams should have an equal number of ballots in the draft lottery draw, .meaning that the 10th place team has an equal chance of picking first as the team that finished last. Draft order should also be assigned randomly by lottery with all non-playoff teams having equal chances.. Playoffs team however will have their draft position determined by Reg.Season records and playoff success does not effect that order. That then means the Presidents Cup winner always picks last even if they got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. This also means that winning the Stanley Cup doesnt effect your draft order.

This system punishes team who avoid spending money on players and bringing in elite talent in order to actively tank the season for a better draft pick. This system also rewards teams like the 2011-12 LA who fought hard to make the last playoff spot and managed to go all the way and win the cup by not forcing them to pick last. Since regular season success determines draft ranking so in 2011-2012 Vancouver would have picked last event though we were knocked out in the first round.

However I doubt teams like Edmonton, Florida, NYI, Buffalo and etc will agree with this system since they would rather keep taking the best players from each draft and kill their careers before they even get going.

Its also not fair to those young kids who get drafted, Example- "Congratulations, your commitment to success and superior play in Junior Hockey has been rewarded by allowing you to play for the worst team in the NHL! We hope you enjoyed your success because you wont be having any more for a long time to come."

If I was in Juniors I wouldnt want to be the first overall pick, I would prefer going in the top 10 rather than have to play for a team that believes you have to lose to win.

But I doubt the league will do something like this, but I at least hope they consider giving all teams in the top 10 an equal chance a getting the first pick, These guys get payed millions to win, not lose. Its a disgrace to the competitive nature of the NHL when teams decide to lose, its not fair to the fans or the players on the team who would rather win than be know as a tanker.

[Og Kassian Doe]

Do people honestly think that some of these teams are bad on purpose? The NHL is a competitive league, finishing dead last or close to last year has consequences that people don't really talk about. The fans tune out, attendance suffers and you breed a losing culture that is hard to shake off. It also severely impacts free agency as top free agents don't want to sign with a club perpetually at the bottom. In some cases you even have the entire fan base screaming for blood. Just look at the Oilers and Islanders, fans are clearly not satisfied and now they have turned against the management and the team. It is an unpleasant situation all around.

I see a high draft pick as a reward to the fan base more so than the team as they are stuck watching a horrible team. It gives fans hope that one day the player they drafted and the pain they had to suffer through may actually be worth it in the end. I like the system the way it is, in fact I would end the gimmick that is the lottery and just order the draft based on the standings. It works for the NFL and MLB and I honestly don't see a problem with the worst team getting the best player.

This

[D-Money]

The current system is pretty good.

And the lottery should also stay. When a generational player is available at #1 (like next year), there shouldn't be a way to ensure he is yours.

Most years teams won't tank, but if worst got first next season, you can guarantee a few would try.

[Jacare]

This is ridiculous, absolutley not. Consistantly high drafting doesnt equal success, its gambling. If your long term business plan for an NHL team is akin to the roulette wheel, your not going to own one for very long. NYI(26), ATL(wpg16), CLB(30), FLA(23), TBL(29), EDM(14), those teams have had those kinds of picks, and they're almost exclusively terrible, they're also among some of the least valuable franchises in the league. The only ones that even turn a profit are CLB, and EDM/WPG, the atlanta situation was so bad they sold and moved the team.

The people that own these teams do it to make money. They're not there to eat 5-10 years of losses on a team thats consistantly drafting that high, so that maybe they get a chance to draft the next crosby or ovechkin. Conversely, Excluding Cdn. teams, the most valuable teams in the NHL are NYR(2), CHI(5), BOS(6), PHI(7), PIT(8), DET(9), LA(10). I havent really looked but i would assume none of the those teams have had even top 10 picks 5 years in a row. you might find that CHI, and LA did the rebuild thing but they built on their success year after year, and their core is built around 2-3 of those top 5 players not 5 of them.

The Draft is supposed to help teams that are struggling, let it. Nobody wants to be EDM, they've had 5 years of that and failed to select championship players, whether it was managements incompetence or those players weren't available in those years who knows, but what is for certain is they're no closer today to a cup than they were 5 years ago, when they started this.

http://www.forbes.com/nhl-valuations/#page:3_sort:0_direction:asc_search:

[oldnews]

The Oilers, ironically, need a rebuild.

They need to rebuild their rebuild - a reverse rebuild of sorts.

They should move a couple of their over-rated young assets for a couple quality veterans that you can actually win hockey games with.

A little more balance to their lineup. Keeping all those forwards while being so soft on the back end is a real head scratching strategy.

It's like they're stuck in the 80s when you may have had a hope in hell with that kind of front loaded youth roster. But this isn't the NHL of the 1980s.

Time to start rebuilding.

[icycold]

that would be impossible, simply because say this instance: Team A has a horrible year for 2 years in a row gets a great pick x 2 then decides to trade it's best player or two players to team x and team y who have top draft picks and then team A again has a horrible yr but then say that's 5 in 4-5 yrs. what then? do you see where that leads? If it didn't involve trades then yes i guess it could but what a nightmare it could turn into in terms of rules.