Earlier this week, the NHL hosted the Board of Governors meeting, an opportunity for hockey executives around the league to discuss the state of the game, and any potential changes. Well known changes have come recently from these meetings, including 3 on 3 overtime and offside reviews.
This time, a leaked idea of change seems truly bizarre, and perhaps even more inane than offside reviews. Earlier this week, insider Chris Johnston reported that the Board of Governors discussed an idea where teams at the bottom of the standings play a sort of playoff series for the first overall pick, instead of the current lottery system.
The goal of the proposal would conceivably be to boost revenues for non-playoff teams, and create meaningful games late in the season for non-competitive teams. Of course, it would also be yet another anti-tanking measure by the NHL.
Initially, the system seems bizarre because the lottery system already deters teams from tanking - there's no guarantee of a high draft pick. Not only that, but this proposed system would bring about a quasi-playoff for last place, which just seems opposite to the inherent idea of the playoffs. It could even potentially distract from the real Stanley Cup Playoffs that would occur at the same time.
This news comes shortly after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman shut down the idea of a play-in tournament for the playoffs, similar to the NBA or MLB Wild Card game. Strangely enough, I would agree with Bettman taking the conservative approach here too. They do not need to fix something that isn't broken. Hopefully, that sentiment continues towards a draft-pick playoff series.
