Unproductive Status Quo

My problem is with the upper portions of the NHL standings, and the lower portions.

This is a league, you can say, that has upper and lower body injuries that become most evident when we get down to the final two weeks of the regular season.

Only about one-third of the league's teams, maybe fewer, are actually playing for something at the moment, with the "excitement" of the "playoff races" really a vast exaggeration.

I'm mean, it's great that Florida is trying to squeak in past Montreal in the east, and that Nashville, St. Louis, Edmonton and Anaheim are clawing for the opportunity to get knocked out in the first round by San Jose or Detroit.

But once more, we see a system in which the top 10 teams in the league are basically just spinning their wheels, biding time until post-season play commences with little to be gained by finishing much higher in the standings.

So what if San Jose finishes ahead of Detroit? The Sharks get nothing for it. Does it really matter a whole bunch if Philly finishes fourth or Carolina does?

Until the league starts rewarding teams more for winning their divisions and accumulating more points than is the case now, you're going to get this sense of inertia in cities when the good teams are just waiting for the season to be over.

At the other end of the spectrum are the teams that won't be making the playoffs, a group of nine teams or maybe 10 if you believe the Wild are done.

Some of these teams are playing pretty hard, or at least they look that way because so many of their opponents are either home and cooled out or in the same non-playoff mode as they are.

What bugs me is that while there is still little reward for teams that finish high in the standings, there's ample reward awaiting clubs that finish as far down the NHL standings as possible.

That, of course, is a high draft pick, or even a shot at No. 1.

Now I'm no great fan of the NHL draft. For a long time now I've believed we don't even really need one for the NHL, that the current bidding process for U.S. college free agents is evidence that the best teams wouldn't necessarily collect all the best young talent if it was just a giant free agent extravaganza of 18-year-old hockey players every spring rather than the entry draft process.

But if there must be a draft, every team that misses the playoffs should have their names thrown into a drum, and then a draw will be held to determine draft order. Not a weighted draw, one in which all 14 non-playoff teams have an equal chance. It'd be like holding the Sidney Crosby draft every year, giving the NHL a wonderful made-for-TV event.

If the Islanders still get No. 1 and the right to draft John Tavares, good for them. If they get the eighth pick or the 14th selection, they still get a good young player, but more important, understand that playing to be lousy doesn't pay.

This isn't my idea. Just one I've heard that makes a lot of sense.

Comments

[Peter]

Damien, i agree with you on the way the draft should be carried out. the way it works today, is rewarding bad play and calls for the constant cries for "tanking" by a few idiots. on the other hand, i don't think there's anything wrong with the playoff race. there will always be teams miles ahead of the others, regardless of the point system. and i think the race was more exiting since the lockout than most years before.

[Nick]

I agree with you here. How does it make sense that the league rewards bad play? As it stands right now, teams shouldn't be proud to get the 1st overall pick. They should be embarrassed. There's something wrong in a league where fans are cheering for their favourite team to tank.

Here's my solution. I've been thinking it would be a good idea to change the draft around so that the team that is closest to making the playoffs without actually making the playoffs gets the #1 pick. The draft order would go from the 9th place teams to the last place team, then from the 8th place teams that just made the playoffs to the 1st place team. This way there is always something on the line for teams out of the playoffs to fight for right to the last day of the season instead of this double kick in the pants they get when they only make it to 9th or 10th, miss the playoffs, and lose draft positions so they don't improve next season. Last place teams at the bottom of the NHL will still get decent enough picks to get them to 9th or 10th where they can get higher picks and end up in the playoffs.

What do you think about a system like this? Would it work?

[James]

I agree 100%. Until when will lousy organizations get the most talented players available just because they're lousy! There's another problem with the current draft system as well, many times young talented players find themselves in teams with no hope and they become frustrated and we soon see some promising careers nose dive. The NHLPA has to get involved as well and try to protect these players.

[RS]

Maybe finishing first gets you a banner of some sort. But seriously, I agree with the rewarding issue. Just not sure what you can do there outside of trophies and the like.

[Tom]

Hi Damien,I like that idea; all team that don't make the playoffs are placed in one draw to have an opportunity at the top pick. So would the full draw be decided through this method or only the first pick?

[Hmm]

Hey Damien, we finally agree on something! Get out the last place wins something mentality. This is the problem we've had with you all year, that the leafs should be tanking. It goes against every real fans intuition to cheer against your team... in Europe (esp. soccer), if your team stinks it up and finishes last 3 places.. they get DEMOTED completely. That's how it should be, not rewarding ineptitude. Imagine if the Islanders were demoted to the AHL and the top AHL teams were promoted. THAT would be exciting.

[sandy webster]

On the final game of the season, the Leafs play Ottawa. There will be nothing in it for the winner. However, the game may well be for a draft position, the loser getting the higher pick: 6th vs 7th or 7th vs 8th. While I don't think either team would "tank," the optics of the situation are not very good. This suggestion would cure that. Another suggestion I saw was that the CBA allow each team a "rookie budget." If you want to spend all of it on a Tavares or Hagman, go ahead. If you want to sign several players, you can do that instead. The idea has merit though the entry level salary system would need to be changed.

[wikfoot appleblossom]

Based on the way the sharks and wings have played at home, i'd say it matters to them how they finish.

As far as the draft, i think it's counter intuitive to desire your product to suffer(finish low/unsuccessful) It would be better for the nhl to have NO reason for teams to lose games and that means changing the draft system.

[Down Goes Brown]

Re: the top end of the standings.

What about this crazy idea: give the higher-seeded team home ice advantage for the entire seven game series. The President's Trophy winner stays at home for their entire playoff run. And if you squeak in as the number eight seed, you hit the road for the rest of the playoffs.

Obviously there would be some revenue splitting issues to work around. But it would sure make the fight for higher seeds interesting, not to mention increase the likelihood of the best regular season teams meeting in the finals.

Too crazy to work? Probably. Forget I mentioned it.

[John Richardson]

There may be a Tooth Fairy after all if Damien gets 100% unnanimity (wait, that's a redundancy) on this subject.

[PK]

While the lottery system is less than perfect, it provides a system to equalize competition by providing the weaker teams with stronger prospects. Often these teams are weaker hockey markets which may not be able to afford expensive contracts for high end in their prime allstar players. And while the whole tanking mentality often occurs with this system, the system you propose would not eliminate this either. For example a team currently in the 8th playoff spot who would likely get swept in the first round, in theory could get a first round pick by simplying attempting to drop to 9th in the late stages of the season. The lottery system ideally attempts to achieve what an revenue based corporation would want, 32 closely competitive franchises

[BH]

Wow! I actually agree! The NHL rewards chronic mismanagement by supplying those teams with a steady stream of good young players. Stars in this league get buried in places like Atlanta, Tampa, Nashville and Pittsburgh where they are certain to get very little exposure to the public. And with the salary cap, players get just as much playing in places where nobody cares as they do in true hockey markets. So why not play where you will not be bothered for autographs? Everybody that doesn't make the playoffs should have an equal shot at first overall. The draft selection could become an event.
But then again, this is the NHL. If anything makes sense from a marketing point of view they are more likely to do the exact opposite.

[David]

I agree wholeheartedly with these notions, and have a couple more to add. The best way to reward top teams is to give them an extra home game, meaning the upper-seeded team would be at home for games 1,2,5,6,7.

This would also cut down on travel and the flight-game-flight-game-flight-game pattern which starts after game number four is a total momentum killer, and give some real incentive for teams to battle to the end.

As for the also-rans, I have an idea: let them have a playoff for draft selection. Since the league loves gate revenue, let the bottom eight teams play for the right to draft #1 through #8. There have been worse ideas, haven't there?

[David Hutchison]

Well, the idea of a giant free-agent frenzy makes a lot of sense. And you are right about the college free-agency. Still, I thinkk on a larger scale it might be good to level the field a bit more by allowing free-agent sized contracts too. Otherwise there might well be a line up of the best young talent in Detroit, San Jose etc. Make them go to the highest bidder and at least there are some restrictions on how many they could afford.

[Mike]

Bang on Damien. To add to your reasoning, the draft is rendered further irrelevant due to the the presence of a team salary cap and a rookie salary scale. Here are a few solutions: give each team an equal probability - either for the first round only, or for each round. Or how about a wide open auction like a baseball or hochey fantasy draft? You could sign a lot of good players but couldn't use them without releasing players. It's not like teams win the cup because of rookie performances anyway. Think of tampa with St. Louis, Richards and Vinny Lecavelier (and Boyle). They had to get rid of some eventually. Pittsburgh will feel this soon and Ottawa has already (Chara, Redden, etc.)

[Johnny Thunder]

I disagree outright about the no draft idea. A franchise level player could take the league minimum in NYR or TOR, knowing full well you'll get all the endorsement opportunities in the world to offset taking league max in a Bettman market.

RE: even parity for draft for non playoff teams... remember last years 'FOUR?' player draft? There are too many teams in this league that can't attract a free agent to save them, leaving nothing there but the hopes of getting the number 1 overall pick.

That said, I think the NHL should expand the lottery ala NBA and allow for more teams to move up and down, but still weighted.

[GOLEAFSGO]

teams are given home ice advantage in the play-offs for winning during the regular season! Damien if you think San Jose is coasting or Detroit for that matter because they are in you are as dumb as most people say in their comments> watch calgary against Edmonton and see if Kipper sits when the Flames could get home ice advantage over vancouver? Short sightedness is your bag because it gets readers and comments but, it does not mean you have a valid point other than the one on your head. do you think the leafs are losing on purpose??? of course not trades make draft day exciting not the losers taken their prize