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New Oilers Rule

August 20, 2014, 5:20 PM ET [115 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The old Oilers aren’t the only ones the NHL had to make rules to prevent from dominating the league. Back in the 80’s the Oilers were so prolific at 4v4 or 3v3 situations that the NHL felt the need to step in. They began using these situations tactically (why wouldn’t you) and the league obviously felt it sort of went against the spirit of the thing, so they changed the rules so coincidental penalties sent players off but teams still played 5v5 (hint, the Oilers were still dominating teams anyway). Those Oiler clubs were just so good that they had to change the rules.

Now there are NEW Oiler rules in place, and how I wish they were made because the team was so good. These would be the anti-tank changes just announced to the NHL Draft Lottery. Hurray Tambi, you changed the rulebook!

The Oilers made no attempt to hide the fact that their rebuild was going to include losing and cheap labour once it was formally announced around the holidays of 2009. They went on to draft 1st Overall 3 straight years because they purposefully built teams that had no business winning in the NHL. That 2009-2010 season was easily the most painful 82 games these eyes have ever witnessed.

The team has finished 30th, 30th, 29th, 24th, 28th since the management came to the chilling conclusion that the only way to get out of this hole was to dig deeper. Every year Tambellini smiled with that blank grin, internally high-fiving himself for getting the job done, as NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly revealed an Oiler logo behind the 1st Overall Card.

They were doing it. It went exactly as planned. Even if another team won the lottery, as the Devils did at the 2011 Draft, they could only move up 5 spots. That meant even if they lost there was a good chance they could win. Mission Accomplished 3 years in a row!

Now the NHL announced changes to the Draft lottery system citing that it is a reflection of the competitive balance in the NHL. What they aren’t saying is that this is an Oiler rule, but that’s exactly what it is. Whether you believe that the 30 teams under the Salary Cap system are closer today than they ever have been, the decision to change the system happened because the Oilers so garishly declared their intentions to be almost unwatchable in order to get extremely high picks.

Starting for the 2016 Draft the top 3 picks will be assigned by lottery. Under the odds they list there’s a pretty good chance that the worst team in the NHL will be forced to pick 4th, whereas in the past the lowest they could Draft was 2nd. That might not seem all that bad, but for really bad teams without the stars the odds of finding a Franchise player have already dropped significantly by the time you hit 4th Overall. No doubt they are still likely to find excellent prospects, but usually outside of the first class nonetheless.

I’ve never been a fan of limiting the odds for bad teams to find good players, especially if the league is citing competitive balance as a reason for change. I mean, if the league was so balanced then why change a balancing system? It doesn’t seem like good long term thinking. However I do understand why an Oiler rule has been created. The Oilers abused the system and did it with gusto. Do that with anyone empowered to make change long enough and they will stop you from doing it.

Let’s just remember, the Draft Lottery is a measure to protect competitive balance and the NHL is changing it because they finally have competitive balance.

I foresee issues in the future.

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