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A couple notes on Bruce Boudreau and tonight's draft lottery:
1) I'm not one to advocate firing someone - I don't like calling for someone to lose their job - but from a pure hockey perspective I think the Calgary Flames would be a lot better off with Boudreau as their coach moving forward.
Sure, he's had some good teams to work with in his NHL career but he has won eight division titles in eight full seasons as a head coach. Considering the last half decade he's been competing with power house teams like the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks that's quite remarkable.
For my money Boudreau is a top-5 coach in hockey. His teams are stout defensively but at the same time he doesn't coach offense out of his players and let's star players do their thing. I think the structure he'd bring, and his patented forecheck that doesn't allow opposing teams to breathe, would be very beneficial for the Flames.
And for those that say he can't coach in the playoffs because he's lost some Game 7's: he is still over .500 in the playoffs, which is no easy task.
Elite coaches don't hit the market very often. That is why I think the Flames would be smart to strongly consider making a change and giving Boudreau as much money as it takes to get him in Calgary.
2) The NHL Draft Lottery goes tonight and, while the Flames possess just an 8.5% chance of winning the top pick, the 2nd and 3rd overall pick are also up for grabs so they have more opportunity to get lucky than they would during other years.
At the same time the possibility of sliding down is also very real and something GMs are aware of and scared of.
I think players in the 6-10 range are very closely knitted but there seems to be somewhat of a consensus for the top-5 (Matthews, Laine, Puljujarvi, Dubious/Tkachuk) so moving down wouldn't be pleasant for teams.
Even if the Flames' rankings don't necessarily reflect the consensus - I know some, myself included, prefer Nylander to Tkachuk, although it's close - Brad Treliving and co. would be losing an opportunity to trade down, accumulate assets and still get a guy they're high on, if they wished to go that route.
If not anything else tonight is going to be very interesting.
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