NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (Photo by John Lamparski / Getty Images)
The NHL doesn’t look good after the 2020 NHL Draft draw.
The NHL made a brilliant move by making the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs a 24-team tournament due to the regular season games lost due to the new interruption of the coronavirus pandemic. The way the NHL handled the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery, to be fair to the seven non-qualifying playoff teams, was not so brilliant.
The NHL Draft Lottery was held on Friday night, June 26, 2020. The team that won the lottery has yet to be determined after Friday night’s action. Because the first pick was won by a playoff qualifying team’s “placeholder” slot, this caused the seven non-postseason teams to return to slots two through eight overall.
That first pick will be awarded in a second lottery consisting of the eight losing teams in the qualifying round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, on a date yet to be determined. Confused? I also.
An unprecedented 24-team tiebreaker will occur after losing 10-12 regular-season games per team since the interruption of March 12, 2020. Seeds nine to 24, based on regular-season point percentages, are They will face in the qualifying round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The eight losers in the qualifying round will have an equal chance of winning the first overall pick with that second lottery, with the rest of those teams completing the overall slots from nine to 15.
The seven non-qualifying playoff teams should have been automatically awarded the top seven spots in the draft in my opinion under this unique 2020 playoff format. These seven teams miss the playoffs this season entirely, which is consistent with the teams. lottery year after year.
Under regular circumstances, 15 teams would miss the playoffs entirely. All 15 teams were still competing for the lottery, with a seed placeholder of 8-15. Now, one of 24 teams that qualified for the Stanley Cup 2020 Playoffs will win the first overall pick in the draft.
The main reason for a lottery is to prevent teams from collapsing at the end of the regular season for better draft rankings. It compromises playoff races when teams build up at the end of the season and the overall integrity of fans of those skating teams, especially those who attend on those nights when their team doesn’t give everything for the price fans pay. to be there
What is unique about this season is that with 10-12 games lost to end the season, the teams didn’t even have a full chance to tank, even if they wanted to. The Los Angeles Kings, who were awarded the No. 2 pick in the upcoming 2020 Draft and arguably the hardest hit by missing the first overall pick, were on a seven-game winning streak when the layoff occurred. The kings were definitely not sinking.
Canada-born left-wing prospect Alexis Lafrenière de Rimouski Océanic of the Quebec Junior Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) is widely regarded as the main consensus prospect in the upcoming Draft 2020. The six non-playoff teams that had the Opportunity to select him now will see a team that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs come off the board. One of these teams will not only lose at Lafrenière, but will send a domino effect through the first eight slots of the upcoming draft.
In a typical 82-game season with 16 Stanley Cup qualifying teams and 15 non-qualifying playoff teams, this would not be an issue. This unique season and the playoff season have been far from normal. I just don’t think this year’s unique Draft Lottery was fair to the non-qualifying playoff teams as it relates to how they have handled justice with the previous non-qualifying playoff teams.
The NHL should have given at least the six teams that owned seven slot machines to have every chance of winning the first through seventh general election, since the playoffs were completely lost. A Stanley Cup 2020 Playoffs qualifying team will win the top pick in the overall draft, and not through a previous commercial acquisition, which would be the only other normal way that would happen. Now those six teams not only missed the playoffs entirely, they also missed the first overall pick in the upcoming NHL 2020 Draft.
