Heading into the NHL Draft Lottery, there was a 50.6% chance that the Detroit Red Wings would get the No. 4 pick in the upcoming draft, despite finishing with what was by far the worst record in the league.
Though the Red Wings did end up getting the No. 4 pick like the odds said they would, many are up in arms about the lottery set up and how it is even possible for a team like the Wings to slide all the way to No. 4.
One person who did not hold back is TSN analyst Brian Burke, who believes it is a disgrace that the Red Wings slid to four.
From The Detroit News:
“This result is nothing short of a disgrace,” Burke said on Friday’s show on SportsNet.
“This makes no sense. It should’ve been just the seven teams that weren’t in the play-in round in the lottery. Give the teams who need the most help the best players.”
“When we started doing drafts in pro sports, it was always in inverse order of finish so the worst team got the best player,” Burke said. “Then we went to a lottery because teams tanked. I support the lottery but to me, if you have a problem you gotta fix, you pick the smallest Band-Aid you can use to fix the problem.
“There should only be five teams in the draft lottery. The notion that a team that just misses the playoffs and picks as high as two or three or one is just crazy to me. I think the league gets almost everything right but this makes no sense to
“Detroit had 39 points at the pause,” he said. “You could have a team with 35 more points pick ahead of them. Detroit and Ottawa are both big losers. It’s a deep draft and they’re going to get a good player with their picks but if Lafreniere is the kind of player we all think he’s going to be, he should be on one of those two teams.”
“I know for a fact there’s a number of GMs who agree with me,” Burke said. “My phone is blowing up tonight. I don’t get it. The league gets so much right and they can’t get this right. I’m guessing as Gary (NHL commissioner Bettman) and Bill fly back or drive back into New York City from the NHL studios, they must be wondering, ‘Is there a better way to do this?” because this is a real sore spot for the league.”
Burke is 100% on the money with this take. Unfortunately, it took the Red Wings getting screwed for it to really come to the forefront.
