Toe to Toe – the legitimacy of the 2005 NHL Draft
Two combatants from Cogeco’s Sports Firing line Frank “The Toe” Caruso (left), and Chris Dawson (right) now take their arguments to the web with a new BayToday.ca weekly sports opinion feature called, “Toe to Toe.” Photo by Lee Anne Dawson.
Two combatants from Cogeco’s Sports Firing line Frank “The Toe” Caruso (left), and Chris Dawson (right) now take their arguments to the web with a new BayToday.ca weekly sports opinion feature called, “Toe to Toe.” Photo by Lee Anne Dawson.
The NHL Draft takes place on Saturday and last Friday we found out where everyone will be drafting on the weekend. The league held a draft lottery and Pittsburgh wound up with the top pick and of course Sidney Crosby. The NBA and NHL use the lottery system for the top portion of the draft on normal years but is a draft lottery for the entire draft legitimate?
Chris:
“There doing a snake draft which means they go 1-30 and then 30-1, so Tampa Bay will get the last pick of the first round 30th overall, but first pick in the second round, 31st overall.
“In my opinion a lottery works well for the first round, but I really think they should have stuck with a normal draft system for the rest of the draft. They should have looked at the overall performances of teams over the past three NHL seasons and have the teams judged and rated on that basis, then combine those totals to create a normal draft from rounds two to nine (only seven rounds in this year's event).
“To me, a ping pong sized little lottery ball shouldn’t be given that much power. A fair and more sensible way would have been to look at the team’s track record and not on blind luck. I know that the weaker team’s had 3 balls in the tank, while the semi-weak franchises were given two balls, but still it created an opportunity for the lottery to blow up in the league’s face.
“What happened if Detroit, New Jersey and Tampa Bay for instance were the last three balls pulled from the tub? That would have been a nightmare. However, I’m glad the way the balls bounced, even though there are some who believe the Pittsburgh Penguins getting Crosby was a fix to save the franchise. I personally think that’s nonsense. That’s just the way the ball bounces.”
Frank:
“Chris, I don’t believe in that, there’s no doubt about it. What I think they should have done is what they did. That’s absolutely a brilliant idea from the NHL. They are doing something to help out all the teams to help all the low markets. First of all, as far as people think this thing is fixed that is a joke. If it was fixed the New York Rangers would have gotten the number one pick overall, there’s no doubt in my mind.
This is a great thing for the NHL. If they were going to do the system that you are saying they should do it what ends up happening is say a team like the Rangers pick 30th, then in the next round they pick fourth overall, I don’t think that’s fair to teams like Washington, Chicago, I don’t think it’s fair to mediocre Montreal, those types of teams. I think the NHL did a brilliant move doing the snake draft, KUDOS to the National Hockey League.”
Toe to Toe can be seen every Friday on BayToday.ca.
