Thomas Gidlow: It's time to eliminate tanking and the race to the bottom

Thomas Gidlow: It's time to eliminate tanking and the race to the bottom
- Thomas Gidlow

Couldn't agree more. Nothing would make me happier then to see the Leafs miss out on all 3 lotteries and anyone else looking to do the same!

Thomas Gidlow: It's time to eliminate tanking and the race to the bottom
- Thomas Gidlow

Good blog,I agree

yup - i hate that teams are rewarded for losing.

it's (frank)ing perverse hoping the leafs lose this year. As much as makes sense to me for them to do.

completely agree that with the salary cap leveling the playing field, the draft needs to be updated accordingly.

Couldn't agree more. Nothing would make me happier then to see the Leafs miss out on all 3 lotteries and anyone else looking to do the same!
- blizzzard

need to fix in 3 years though

I'm fine with this current system. I rather hope the Oilers win the Matthews sweepstakes too.
In all seriousness, maybe make it so that a team can't win the lottery more than once every 3/4 years. Something like that would probably make this tanking system more equitable.

In addition to lottery changes, they need to ditch the cap for a luxury tax system. The markets that support many of the smaller mkt teams deserve the right to be able to buy their way out of mistakes. Let's face it, when a majority of the larger mkt teams are in tank/rebuild/retool mode, the league suffers.

Any system that encourages prolonged periods of non-competitiveness is one that needs to change.

I came off as a total Richard there but come on lol

Talk to Gary....I approve of this message

I'm fine with this current system. I rather hope the Oilers win the Matthews sweepstakes too.
In all seriousness, maybe make it so that a team can't win the lottery more than once every 3/4 years. Something like that would probably make this tanking system more equitable.
- jfkst1

One Devils fan had a pretty good idea or at least I thought it could possibly work is that they raise the draft age to 20 then the teams who get the top picks don't need as many top picks to turn their team around because those players are more ready to compete.

One Devils fan had a pretty good idea or at least I thought it could possibly work is that they raise the draft age to 20 then the teams who get the top picks don't need as many top picks to turn their team around because those players are more ready to compete.
- blizzzard

I wish the draft age was 19 or 20. Drafting would get more accurate. But how would that transition work?

yup - i hate that teams are rewarded for losing.

it's (frank)ing perverse hoping the leafs lose this year. As much as makes sense to me for them to do.

completely agree that with the salary cap leveling the playing field, the draft needs to be updated accordingly.
- Tumbleweed

Rather than have dead-last place receive the highest odds, it should be distributed so that the median-two non-playoff teams receive the highest odds of winning the lottery.

This rewards the teams that didn't just miss the playoffs ("better" non-playoff teams). The lowest percentage chance of winning the lottery goes to a) the teams good enough to just miss out on a playoff spot and b) the teams who were so terribly non-competitive that they finished at the bottom of the league.

This discourages tanking without giving teams on the fringe of making the playoffs any added benefit.

So with 14 teams missing the playoffs each year, that means the teams that finish 23rd and 24th overall would receive the highest percent chance of winning the lottery, with the percentage of lottery balls diminishing incrementally as you approach both the playoff "threshold" and the bottom of the league. Basically, it's a bell curve.

Eliminate entry level contracts and Restricted Free Agency, maintain a hard salary cap.

Done.

Teams will only draft talent they think they can afford. Tanking year after year will be eliminated.

I wish the draft age was 19 or 20. Drafting would get more accurate. But how would that transition work?
- jfkst1

Yeah I'm not sure what it would muck up through out the jr leagues and what not if it would effect upcoming talent by weakening it or would it strengthen it but he pointed out that it's usually only the top two players in the draft that are nhl ready anyways and teams 3-5 usually need just as much help but they are waiting 3-5 years for their picks to be ready.

I wish the draft age was 19 or 20. Drafting would get more accurate. But how would that transition work?
- jfkst1

I don't see how that makes it more accurate. You already can't pull kids out of juniors to put them in the AHL until they're 20. So they'll just get drafted later and you'll still have to see how they do when they're tossed into the professional game. It doesn't change anything as far as I can see.

Im not a fan of tanking.

but giving the team that has the best record from the trade deadline to the end of season with the first overall pick is foolish.
Playoff teams should not have a chance at number 1 overall.
But to avoid selling off assets to get worse at the deadline.
Maybe have the 5 teams with the worse record from the deadline to the end of season lose percentage points off the current system's chances at the number the 1 overall?

@BINGO

Teams will only draft talent they think they can afford. Tanking year after year will be eliminated.

Respectfully, strongly disagree here. This same scenario destroyed several small market MLB teams. How do bad teams ever compete/sell their product?

Sounds like a really super way to keep the bottom 4 or 5 teams that way indefinitely.

Couldn't agree more. Nothing would make me happier then to see the Leafs miss out on all 3 lotteries and anyone else looking to do the same!
- blizzzard

I think the Leafs management are perfectly aware that there's a good chance they could miss on all 3 top picks. It's also completely irrelevant to what they're doing. I think they are way more inclined to get picks in quantity rather than quality.
The last place team this year has a 20% at the top pick. Failing that, they then have a slightly better than 20% chance on the next pick, followed by a just under 25% at the 3rd pick. These percentages don't add up. That's an 80% chance at failure, followed by another 80%, and then a 75% chance to fail.
Tanking for the first pick just doesn't make sense anymore.
Tanking because your team sucks from top to bottom, and because you need every last pick you can get to rebuild is, and always will be an option.
Since every single good team in the league at the moment, went through a long period of ineptitude before they became good, I don't get all the rage.
Besides, what's the point in tanking while Edmonton still has a lottery pick?

@BINGO



Respectfully, strongly disagree here. This same scenario destroyed several small market MLB teams. How do bad teams ever compete/sell their product?
- stowerkraut

MLB doesn't have a hard salary cap. The luxury tax means nothing to the teams that can afford it. THAT'S the big difference to me.

One Devils fan had a pretty good idea or at least I thought it could possibly work is that they raise the draft age to 20 then the teams who get the top picks don't need as many top picks to turn their team around because those players are more ready to compete.
- blizzzard

This...actually makes a lot of sense....

This...actually makes a lot of sense....
- oldstyle

I don't see how drafting guys after their overage years is going to make the selection process any more accurate. You don't see a lot of guys who are considered top-to-decent NHL prospects regress as they get older.

Not original and one of the more stupider ideas out there. There's nothing wrong with the worst team of the previous year getting the first overall pick. Why should teams who underachieve in the first part of the season be rewarded?

What happens if your team is just bad and they get the 14th pick because they didn't have a hot streak during the second half of the season. How would you like to be a fan of a bad team that never gets a top pick because they only go to teams who underachieved during the first half of the season?

Not original and one of the more stupider ideas out there. There's nothing wrong with the worst team of the previous year getting the first overall pick. Why should teams who underachieve in the first part of the season be rewarded?

What happens if your team is just bad and they get the 14th pick because they didn't have a hot streak during the second half of the season. How would you like to be a fan of a bad team that never gets a top pick because they only go to teams who underachieved during the first half of the season?

Not original and one of the more stupider ideas out there. There's nothing wrong with the worst team of the previous year getting the first overall pick. Why should teams who underachieve in the first part of the season be rewarded?

What happens if your team is just bad and they get the 14th pick because they didn't have a hot streak during the second half of the season. How would you like to be a fan of a bad team that never gets a top pick because they only go to teams who underachieved during the first half of the season?
- Hunkulese