NHL's draft plan includes payback
Thursday, May 19, 2005
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Calgary came within one victory of earning the Stanley Cup last spring, a couple of months after the Penguins finished with the worst record in the NHL.
No matter. According to a plan reportedly awaiting approval of the league's Board of Governors, both would have an equal chance -- 5 percent -- of ending up with the No. 1 choice in the next entry draft.
The order of selection usually is determined by where teams in the regular-season standings (with the wrinkle of a lottery that can alter the order for non-playoff teams), but a new system is required because the 2004-05 season was wiped out by a lockout.
While nothing is expected to be adopted until a new collective bargaining agreement is in place, the Toronto Star reported that the system presented to the board gives each team a chance to land the No. 1 pick, with percentages from 1.7 percent to 6.7.
Allowing perennially successful, big-market clubs like Philadelphia, Detroit and Toronto to have an opportunity to snare the first pick -- essentially, the rights to potential franchise player Sidney Crosby -- apparently would be payback for including a revenue-sharing provision in the next CBA.
The plan reportedly would give each team four balls for a lottery-style drawing, but would force them to surrender one for every year they qualified for the playoffs or had the No. 1 choice in the draft (without acquiring it in a trade) in the past four seasons. Each team is assured of having at least one.
The Penguins were in the 2001 playoffs, which would reduce their total to three, same as Atlanta, Buffalo, Calgary, Chicago, Minnesota, Nashville and Phoenix. The New York Rangers and Columbus are the only clubs that would have the maximum of four.
The Penguins declined to comment on the story, and officials from the league and other teams did not respond to interview requests. One club executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his team believes the plan detailed in the Star is one of several under consideration.
The Edmonton Sun put forth a different scenario yesterday, that one based on playoff appearances the past three springs. Under that system, teams like the Penguins that sat out the postseason three years in a row would get three balls, clubs that missed twice would get two, and the rest one.
That plan would give the Penguins a 3-in-52 -- or 5.76 percent -- chance of getting the top pick in the draft. It, like the system in the Star, called for reversing the draft order in alternate rounds.
