SportsNet analyst and former NHL general manager Brian Burke was at a loss for words after the Red Wings fell to fourth place in the league lottery on Friday night.
Despite having the best odds of choosing No. 1 overall and after selecting consensus No. 1 prospect Alexis Lafreniere, Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman saw him on a video conference from his home in Bloomfield. Hills when NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly announced the winner – a playoff-caliber team that loses in the first round of the play-in round scheduled to begin in late July or early August.
“This result is a disgrace,” Burke said on Friday’s show on SportsNet. “This doesn’t make sense. It should have been just the seven teams that weren’t in the game round in the lottery. Give the teams that need the most help the best players.”
Yzerman was kind in defeat and took the right path by discussing the disappointing result of the lottery draw.
“We had an 18.5% chance of winning the top pick, so realistically I’m prepared not to be sitting here talking about the first choice,” said Yzerman. “Whatever he says will be for his own benefit. They have to do what they have to do.”
Burke, one of the game’s outspoken analysts who once criticized the Red Wings in a 2002 playoff series for the physical treatment of Vancouver twin forwards Henrik and Daniel Sedin (“Sedin is not Swedish to beat or lock me in a scrum “) says he would be” screaming bloody murder “if he were GM again.
“When we started doing drafts in professional sports, it was always in reverse order at the end, so the worst team got the best player,” Burke said. “Then we went to a lottery because the teams collapsed. I support the lottery, but for me, if you have a problem that you have to solve, you choose the smallest band aid that you can use to solve the problem.”
“There should only be five teams in the lottery draw. The notion that a team that just fails in the playoffs and chooses up to two or three or one is crazy to me. I think the league does pretty much everything right, but this it doesn’t make any sense to me. It makes our league really bad. It makes us see Mickey Mouse and we are not Mickey Mouse. “
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Burke predicted that something like this could happen before the draft. He said it would have been bad enough if a team occupying the place got into the top three, but not No. 1.
“Detroit had 39 points on the break,” he said. “You could have a team with 35 more points ahead. Detroit and Ottawa are big losers. It is a deep draft and they are going to get a good player with their teams, but if Lafreniere is the type of player that all of us think he will be , it should be on one of those two teams. “
Burke said he hopes the NHL will consider amending the lottery rules in the future to prevent a playoff-bound team like the Edmonton Oilers from adding Lafreniere to a list filled with top three picks like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. .
“I know there are a number of GMs who agree with me,” Burke said. “My phone is exploding tonight. I don’t get it. The league is fine and they can’t get it right. I suppose Gary (NHL Commissioner Bettman) and Bill are flying back or returning to New York City from the studios. The NHL must ask themselves, “Is there a better way to do this?” because this is a really painful point for the league. “
Twitter: @falkner
