NHL general managers tackle draft lottery, tanking issues

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The NHL general managers are open to having a discussion on the draft lottery this week at their yearly meetings, but it’s unclear if they can come to a resolution on some of the issues they see with the process.

The biggest problem has involved the Edmonton Oilers owning the No. 1 pick four times in the last six drafts.

“Even if you’re not the worst team in the league, you can jump over other teams and so forth and I think it’s going to be looked at,” said New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero. “It’s more for the good of the game and for fans. The GMs, if you ask us, it’s always what’s best for us usually, but I think it’s about the fans as well in the cities that aren’t getting that first pick.”

With more parity in the NHL as a whole, maybe the system shouldn’t reward a team that finishes last in the standings as much as in the past.

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“The difference between the worst team and the fifth-worst team is not as much as it was before,” said Nashville Predators GM David Poile. “You get into words we don’t like using as far as ‘tanking’ and things like that. As guardians of the game we just have to keep paying attention to that to make sure the system we have is the correct system. “

Here is the lottery process for this season:

This will use the same percentage chance of winning the lottery as 2015 and will readjust proportionally after each drawing. The teams not picked in the lottery will be given selections four through 14, in inverse order of regular season points.

It’s not that teams are consistently trying to finish last. Groups want to eventually win but sometimes they can’t get over the hump.

“I’ve been here for two years, we’ve finished last and picked second overall the last two years. But our plan is not to pick second overall two years from now or three years from now,” said Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray. “We always think we can get better. If you look at everything but the standings I think our team has improved greatly from last year and I expect us to take that step again next year. Our plan is not to pick one or two for five years.”

Instead of changing the draft lottery, maybe there’s a way to change the system so teams aren’t jettisoning NHL talent and not getting roster players in return. For example, the Toronto Maple Leafs have stockpiled a total of 20 draft picks for the 2016 and 2017 NHL drafts – many of which were accrued as part of trades that dealt NHL players.

The Carolina Hurricanes have a total of 21 picks in the next two drafts.

But today's contending teams don’t want to give up roster players. And teams that are looking to get rid of expiring contracts would prefer to draft and develop their own player rather than take on another team’s prospect.

“You’re invested in your prospects, the good ones especially, you draft them and we put so much emphasis on development now, it’s changed so much since 23 years ago when I got in to today. You create a relationship with your players now,” Murray said.  “You do have development camps and pay way more attention to them after they’re drafted than what they used to. We used to draft them, figured they’d go back to junior for two years, we’d get them signed, get to know them. But you get to know them long before that now. When you know somebody it’s hard to ship them out, so the pick is an unknown and some guys are more comfortable moving the picks.”

It’s also easier to throw in a draft pick, especially in the current league climate when there’s immediacy to trades.

“It almost comes down to a deadline with ‘let’s just keep this simple with draft picks and figure this out,’” Shero said. “That’s the way I looked at it. Who wants to give up their best prospects? And the guys they make available are not their best guys and we don’t really like as much, so ‘these are the draft picks and we’ll see.’”

Also, the Oilers haven’t seemed to make a long-term strategy decision to play poorly in order to have the chance at the top pick in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015. Poor management and coaching decisions led to mediocrity in Edmonton. In essence, the bottoming out of a rebuilding process shouldn’t last longer than one or two years. Edmonton's has been extreme.

“I say in hockey, we’re certainly not trying to pick ‘one’ every year,” Murray said. “Maybe it eliminates the opportunity if some team decided that was their philosophy for four or five years, it eliminates that. I don’t see that, but if that was the case, it takes it out of the equation.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper