NHL proposes Draft lottery changes that would prevent more “Oilers and Devils situations”

Thoughts? I know Red Wings fans will love this!

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
NHL proposes Draft lottery changes that would prevent more “Oilers and Devils situations”
Zuma Press

According to a report from Sportsnet NHL insider Chris Johnston, the NHL is proposing changes to the NHL Draft Lottery that would prevent team from winning it no more than twice in a five year period and would limit how much of a jump a winning team can make.

Check it out:


To me, this looks to be a policy made to address the situations that transpired with the Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils over the past decade. The Oilers famously landed the #1 overall pick three years in a row taking Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Then just three years later in 2015 they hit the absolute jackpot when they won the lottery again and landed Connor McDavid 1st overall. The Devils meanwhile won the lottery twice in a three year period netting Nico Hischier in 2017 and Jack Hughes in 2019.

Meanwhile, a team like the Detroit Red Wings who have been in the basement of the league for nearly half a decade now, still haven't drafted in the top three. Despite being the worst team in the NHL the past three seasons, the Red Wings have selected 4th, 6th and 6th at the Draft. Take the Vancouver Canucks, as well. While they seemed to have hit homeruns with Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, those players were selected 5th overall and 7th overall respectively after being bumped down the draft order by the Devils.

There's no signed of these proposed changes going into effect for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, but quite frankly there's a LOT up in the air when it comes to this summer's draft. Don't be surprised if the NHL rushes these new changes into policy for the upcoming draft.