The Draft Lottery Explained, & Why the Kings Will pick in the top 5

[lakings173]

I don't understand the f'n thing, and I know most of you don't either. After I read this article it all made sense...

Andy Grabia from The Battle of Alberta dropped me a note last night wondering if I knew exactly how the NHL's ping-pong ball lottery system works, and after digging around a little bit, I came up with some information on the subject.

In short, it can get a little complicated:

LINK:
Click here to read the rest...

I know, I know - I always link the same guy's blog. He has a knack for explaining this kind of bs. Either way, it's a good read.

[Continuum]

Good read.

All they have to do is lose when Tampa Bay loses and they will be fine. As long as they finish 30th I will be ecstatic.

Then when they lose the lottery and Dean picks Doughty nobody can complain that he didn't pick Stamkos.

[OrangePuck]

The NHL draft lottery is probably the simplest of all the drafts if one takes about 2 minutes to ingest the rules and realize that the posibilities are pretty limited.

[D0wntime]

Originally Posted by OrangePuck

The NHL draft lottery is probably the simplest of all the drafts if one takes about 2 minutes to ingest the rules and realize that the posibilities are pretty limited.

yup dividing 1001 combinations comprised of sets of four numbers from 1-14 so that each of the last 14 teams have a particular chance of winning the draft lottery based on how they finished the prior year, and then throwing out one combination to ensure fairness is so much simpler and easy to understand than the NFL or MLB drafts which simply base draft order on end of year standings.

[TooCool]

Thanks.

I knew about the moving up 4 spots and the whole percentage thing. What I didn't know was that we can't drop more than 1 spot.

So even if we don't get the #1 pick, that means we get the #2 pick for SURE. (That is, if we finish dead last...) So yeah, that's cool!

[rajuabju]

At this point, the Kings are pretty much guaranteed a top 3 pick.

There's almost no way they could do any better than 29th. Meaning at worst, they get the 3rd pick in the draft.

Between Stamkos, Doughty and Schenn (or Pietrangelo) I will be a very happy person. You can never be 100% sure, but between those 4 guys, I think we will have a winner.

[Crusader Knight]

I didn't know the lottery only affects the first 14 overall picks, why not just keep the same order throughout the draft

[Since 1967]

Originally Posted by D0wntime

yup dividing 1001 combinations comprised of sets of four numbers from 1-14 so that each of the last 14 teams have a particular chance of winning the draft lottery based on how they finished the prior year, and then throwing out one combination to ensure fairness is so much simpler and easy to understand than the NFL or MLB drafts which simply base draft order on end of year standings.

Concur.

[Since 1967]

Originally Posted by rajuabju

At this point, the Kings are pretty much guaranteed a top 3 pick.

There's almost no way they could do any better than 29th. Meaning at worst, they get the 3rd pick in the draft.

Between Stamkos, Doughty and Schenn (or Pietrangelo) I will be a very happy person. You can never be 100% sure, but between those 4 guys, I think we will have a winner.

You have to remember though that DL will pick a guy that should, under any normal circumstances, be picked in the early 2nd round. With the first overall he's gonna want to make sure to have that jump on the other teams.

[charles]

Originally Posted by ksc218

I didn't know the lottery only affects the first 14 overall picks, why not just keep the same order throughout the draft

adding a lottery to the mix is an incentive against tanking for the #1 pick. there's no reason for that to persist into later rounds.

[RockPile]

Originally Posted by Since 1967

You have to remember though that DL will pick a guy that should, under any normal circumstances, be picked in the early 2nd round. With the first overall he's gonna want to make sure to have that jump on the other teams.

Sounds like you think DL makes terrible picks. Usually such posts come from those who are still upset over the Hickey pick. I don't want to put words in your mouth but it seems like you are saying that Hickey is definitely not going to end up as one of the top 4 players from that draft or are you referring to other picks? Bernier, Lewis maybe? The jury is still out but Hickey, Bernier, Moeller, Simmonds at this time all seem to be good picks relative to where they were taken and all GM's have misses.