Todd Cordell
I'd like to see the Maple Leafs win the lottery.
For years and years they traded picks, prospects and young players for veterans to try and get a quick fix and it always blew up in their face.
Now they have assembled a team of smart people and are going about their business the right way. They're stockpiling picks, focusing on drafting and developing and have an analytics staff to help with decision making.
Given the team's ineptitude over the last decade, and the fact that they're finally showing some patience and committed to doing things right, I think it'd be nice to see them rewarded with a prospect like Auston Matthews.
My honourable mention would go to New Jersey because they haven't had a star player (not goaltender) since Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise a few years back and both walked away for nothing.
Peter Tessier The homer pick would be the Jets but that's not it. The real homer pick for me is the Canucks but it's not because they are the team I have loved for life.
Other than Pavel Bure have the Canucks ever had the a true elite draft talent? One might argue that they had the Sedins but that took time for them to emerge but when they did it was spectacular. Bure on the other had was a gamble in a different era a the end of the cold war with uncertainty that he would ever play.
So is Mathews a generational talent? No, he's not McDavid or Crosby but he's good and I think the Canucks have just as much reason to deserve him as any team. Consider the Pacific and what is happening in Calgary and Edmonton. Vancouver can't be left behind without getting anyone like the youth those two teams have, can it?
James Tanner I would like to see the Toronto Maple Leafs win the draft lottery.
My brother is having a birthday party that day for his wife and if the Leafs win things are going to go absolutely insane.
Then, add in the rejuvenation of the league's preeminent franchise and the odds of seeing the Cup come home to Toronto - at least one day - dramatically increasing and I think you have a clear cut situation.
The Leafs need to win it, the league needs the Leafs to win it and I need the Leafs to win it.
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