44 replies to this topic

[NJDevs4978]

I remember reading about a proposed system a while back that worked something like this:

Teams pick in order of most wins to least wins after they have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

This way, the worst teams have the most chances to accumulate some wins and management has extra incentive to play to win. There is no reason the worst team should automatically have the #1 pick. It's really not so bad to draft #5 overall, there is still some very serious talent to be had.

This would severely damage parity in the long-term. Parity is built on the worst teams getting a top pick and being able to improve that way, especially since FA's won't be as likely to go to bad teams who won't be able to overspend to pay them if they're not getting any profit at the gate. Plus the top non-playoff teams are already trying to win since they're actually trying to make the playoffs.

And short-term I don't see why there needs to be a 'fix' at all, the NHL Draft Lottery is infinitely more fair than the NBA one and gives the worst team about a 50% chance of the top pick which is fine. And many years the worst team hasn't goten the top pick.

EDIT: Okay I misread your post, I thought you were givig the top pick to Buffalo/Colorado. Ironically that probably increases the chances the worst team gets the top pick (and I don't think the NHL wants teams to tank games 40-60 to get to elimination faster any more than they would have them lose games 60-80 and 'maybe' get a top pick) but it's probably not feasible because of different schedules. When one team has 24 games left, another team has 21. It's not as fair to teams that play a lot of games early in the season.

Edited by NJDevs4978, 11 April 2012 - 11:14 AM.

[justdo3043]

what does edm do with gagner...omark now i wonder

[halfsharkalligatorhalfman]

I'm not sure it's fair to say Larsson is soft since he's 19 years old. It's too early to say who he'll be since he's still just a project who's shown flashes of greatness but really just flashes.

I wouldn't trade him either for just Yakupov (I merely threw his name out to promote discussion), but let's not kid ourselves. He has a long way to go before he's even as good as Sami Salo (who we all ripped tsn for listing as a comparable). And don't forget the Devils only have him with RFA protection for the next 6 years. On top of this, year 1 of his Devils career has been near the low end of expectations wouldn't you say? I would hope Lou would have put him in the AHL and signed Stralman if he had expected this.

[Triumph]

I'm not sure it's fair to say Larsson is soft since he's 19 years old. It's too early to say who he'll be since he's still just a project who's shown flashes of greatness but really just flashes.

I wouldn't trade him either for just Yakupov (I merely threw his name out to promote discussion), but let's not kid ourselves. He has a long way to go before he's even as good as Sami Salo (who we all ripped tsn for listing as a comparable). And don't forget the Devils only have him with RFA protection for the next 6 years. On top of this, year 1 of his Devils career has been near the low end of expectations wouldn't you say? I would hope Lou would have put him in the AHL and signed Stralman if he had expected this.

Whoa, sorry, this is nuts. Larsson's game fell off sharply after his injury, but the kid still makes a breakout pass every game that I don't think anyone else on the team could make. After coming back from Sweden in December until his injury he was probably New Jersey's best defenseman, or certainly in the discussion. He ends the season basically break-even with some offensive zone sheltering but not much sheltering from difficult competition.

Breaking even as a 19 year old defenseman is really impressive. Next year I expect him to become a 22-23 minute defender. I also expect him to be better than Sami Salo next year.

Edited by Triumph, 11 April 2012 - 05:41 PM.

[halfsharkalligatorhalfman]

I hope you're right. I missed a lot of games during that stretch you're speaking of and didn't look at his fenwick/corsi etc.

I still think the team would have been better off with Stralman and keeping Larsson in Albany. I can't really say if Larsson will have been better served next year with NHL over AHL experience (probably), but I'm slightly peeved we're going into round 1 with Peter Harrold instead of Larsson. At the beginning of the year Larsson was getting first unit PP time and over 20 minutes of ice time. The path from there to playoff healthy scratch (though I suppose I understand it for round 1 at least) seems disappointing to me.

Edit: Especially considering his failure at the PP meant the Devils were forced to trade for Foster and then Zidlicky.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Edited by halfsharkalligatorhalfman, 11 April 2012 - 06:55 PM.