What is the purpose of the NHL Draft Lottery?
Everyone knows that the National Hockey League has a draft system in place, to help the weakest teams get the best amateurs at the beginning of the regular season. Not so long ago, the system was slightly different, with the team to finish last having the first overall pick but that proved to be a faulty system. The reason a lottery was set into place was to prevent weaker teams from intentionally losing the games, as soon as they realize that they had no chance to make the playoffs.
A more competitive National Hockey League
There are serious suspicions that the Pittsburgh Penguins tanked the season 29 years ago just to make sure they get Mario Lemieux, which they did. Other teams might have done it in the past, but that was a brazen example of why the NHL Draft Lottery was necessary to act as a safeguard against such practices. Ever since this system was set in place, the final games of each season were more intense and there were few doubts about whether teams lost games intentionally or succumbed to better opponent.
The system is far from perfect, and weaker teams still have a better chance of winning the lottery, but that’s the intention. It would defeat the purpose to have the best teams getting the most promising young players, and in the end this would only lead to a lopsided championship. So far the NHL Draft Lottery performs the role of keeping the games fair and balanced, so there is a good reason for the lottery to be used for many seasons.
How does the NHL Draft Lottery work?
The name is very intuitive and those who are familiar with how regular lotteries work with surely pick up the basics right away. A total of 1000 ping-pong balls is introduced into a plastic recipient and each of them has the name of one team inscribes on the surface. Weaker teams have more balls therefore a better chances to be extracted, while those who make the playoffs are excluded from the lottery.
The bottom five teams can hope to win the first or second overall pick, but the trick is that only one winner is extracted. As soon as one team wins the NHL Draft Lottery, the standings decide the rest of the picks, with the team finishing the 30th placed being the next to choose. The bottom line is that the worst placed team has a chance of 25%, and the percentage decreases all the way to the 17th placed team who has a tiny chance of 0.5%. Another thing that needs to be taken into account is that if a team from 17th-25th place wins the lottery, it only moves up four spots and then the standings kick in.
Check out the Lottery for kids: pros and cons as well.
