“Tanking”, or deliberately weakening your roster so you can lose games, and receive draft picks for it… Does it make sense? Is it a good strategy? Is there any way to stop teams from doing it? That and more in this edition of District 5.
#hockey #nhl
24 Comments
Fans and players look to build a cup winning team, unfortunately many owners just want to build a competitive team that is fighting to get in the playoffs (enough to keep fans in the building). Consistently bad teams are that way by design, finances, or very poor leadership. Always rebuilding means we’re incompetent.
Last season, I was at the last ANA Ducks game chanting "We want Bedard !", wanting to lose to ensure last spot in the NHL and highest #1 draft odds; this also only occurred because CHI Blackhawks got points in their last 2 games, so you could say Ducks tanked better at the end than the Blackhawks… But we all know what happens next, CHI moves up in the draft and gets Bedard and ANA falls to 2nd. CHI gets another generational talent 1st pick and Ducks still don't have a 1st. Would have been nice if ANA went UP this year but no justice. Will never be able to see Bedard the same after this.
Great video, though I do disagree with the idea that all tanking is inherently bad. The NHL is a business and the decision to trade good players to reset the timeline and be in contention for elite talent is simply asset management. As a fan, I'd much rather watch a handful of bad years and become excited for the draft and free agency rather than watch my team spin their tires for a decade and never get over the hump. Even 3 or 4 top picks doesn't guarantee wins, you need competent ownership, management, and leadership to win.
If we're arguing the "integrity of the sport", I think the NHL gets it right the most of any other major sport in NA. The NFL doesn't have a draft lottery at all, the MLB only has a 6-team lottery, and the NBA is a superstar league where one player can transform a team.
No it doesn't, unless you are Chicago. Signed, Detroit Red Wings fan.
Great video man, well done
I always had this idea that the draft order or the lottery odds should be based on the combined records from previous three seasons. That way tanking would not be possible unless it's your long-term plan, and the team rewarded with the first overall pick would always be the worst in the League.
no other sports have the draft lottery, that's because it's stupid and rigged. Scrap it.
Good video but it isn't that simple. Tanking is more involved than just getting a high draft pick. It has interplay with the cap, drafting, development, injury luck, ect. Here are some of the key things you can't skip over in this discussion.
1st of all you didn't even touch on the reason why the draft exists. The purpose is to maintain parity. The worst teams getting the best players. Anything that disrupts that relationship defeats the purpose.
2nd Drafting isn't the be all end all because drafting is an imperfect skill. You are going to be better or worse at it depending on personnel and even then you're still trying to predict the future. You can't predict injuries or development outcomes.
3rd You have to factor in the cap advantages of ELC's it's a huge reason why having good young players is so valuable. It's the only class of player that is not paid what they are worth. (or more realistically more than what they are worth because of free agent bidding wars).
I like the idea of a bottom-16 playoffs, but I worry about attendance at a lot of these games, especially in markets with less enthusiastic fanbases. maybe it'd work if they shortened the regular season a little, by like 4-8 games or so? we've seen that teams who go deep in the playoffs multiple times in a row have fatigue and injury issues down the line. also, I feel like the series in these playoffs could just be best of 5 instead of 7.
I'd like to see the first round completely random and the following rounds last to first.
The Sharks in 92 did NOT tank lmao they were just one of the worst expansion teams in history EVER
tanking is strictly a management thing. and they will only deliberately do it if management is okay with keep that staff around for a rebuild. all those players and coaches still have to some how keep their jobs.
Why does Pronger have a ? next to his name @2:59?
Man your salty about this😂😂
Great video, great work… deserves more views
Great video but I think there's two things to address. 1) the league incentivizes this. Hard to blame the teams/GMs for not playing the current system. Fans need to vote with their dollars if they're not happy with what the team is doing. 2) some of this is a function of having 32 teams. Success rates drop precipitously each draft pick slot until you get in the teens then it's a crap shoot. Even if 12 teams per conference are duking it out for playoff spots that still leaves 8 teams who are just awful. You're punished heavily for going for a playoff spot only to miss. Doubly if you traded assets to make the push and still miss the playoffs.
There's simply not enough talent to support 32 truly competitive teams. In that way the lottery is a carrot teams can Daigle to their fans while they try to figure out how to get good. I don't blame the teams so much as the league. They need to find a way to keep the product entertaining if they're going to expand. Right now if you're bad the answer seems to be tank, get very lucky with a late round pick (Pasta, Marchand, Been Kaprizov, etc but isn't every team trying to do that?), or pray you can sign a top line free agent. GMs probably feel they can realistically only effect one of those outcomes so it's the one they go for.
The NHL needs to go back to having the lottery draw the actual picks, except make every non-playoff team should have a chance at every pick. As in, the team with the worst record could wind up with the 16th pick.
It's impossible to know. The NHL has changed it's lottery format so many times now that each generation of rebuilding teams faces different rules. The Red Wings, for example, bottomed out at the worst time as far as rules were concerned.. and they paid for it. I think teams tank.. sure. But the reality is that teams go through natural cycles. A long stretch of being competitive and spending assets at the deadline and trading picks for players.. it slowly eats a hole in an organization's depth. That team's core ages, and when they retire.. said team stinks. It's not tanking when that happens.. it's the result of trying to win for a long period of time. So teams like Chicago.. they tanked. But the Sharks?? They aren't tanking, they just stink. That's why I prefer a standard draft. No gimmicks. No lottery.
such an easy solution to this. pwhl has already figured it out. start accumulating draft points when team is eliminated
If you already discuss the word "tanking" , well then there is tanking
Amazing video honestly. But I don’t agree with you idea on what to do with the draft lottery.
American and Canadian sports really feels like communism
The San Jose Sharks never really wanted to tank but were forced to do it because former GM Doug Wilson ran the franchise into the ground.
I have thought so much about everything you said. Makes me more proud of the fact the Canucks have come as far as they have without tanking. Good drafting and signings and trades. Really hope we finish off the Oilers this round, otherwise it helps reinforce that all you really have to do is sit back, tank and get your McDavid's to win. It's a travesty Bedard went to the Blackhawks.