At least one NHL general manager wants to limit the opposition's dances with lady luck to once in five years.
In advance of this week's general manager meetings in Florida, St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong is talking about reducing the chances of winning the lottery for teams that don't finish in 30th place.
"The theory is that if you finish last you always have a chance to win the lottery," Armstrong said, according to Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun. "So, if you finish last three years in a row, you can win the lottery three years in a row. But if you didn’t finish last and win the lottery, you can’t do it again for another five years.
"If you are like Edmonton last year and finished 28th and won the lottery, you couldn’t win it again this year if you didn’t finish last."
For Armstrong, the question of teams tanking in order to ensure a last-place finish isn't a concern.
"For me it’s not a thing of concern because of the parity," he said. "I just don’t think you can make yourself that much better at the (trade) deadline or that much worse at the deadline.
"Ultimately players have no stake in tanking," he continued. "And when you see the number of young players in the game today, well, usually when a player gets called up, he’s hungrier. It’s almost the reverse philosophy. The logic is that when you trade veteran players you get worse. The reality is, when you trade veterans and bring up younger guys, in a lot of instances you get better. The statistics actually show that."
The draft lottery is expected to be one of the main topics addressed at the GM meetings.
