Stuff and Things – Tanking Edition

There is plenty to talk about in this weeks edition of Stuff and Things. The Oilers are winning, the talk about the draft is heating up, Taylor Hall is back and the playoff races are down to the wire for NHL teams looking to get in. Let’s get to it.

Stuff

• Today the Oilers signed college d-man Joey LaLeggia, he’s a smaller puck moving defenseman who’s had himself a great college career. LaLeggia will report to OKC to get some time with the Barons before his two year entry level contract kicks in. You can read a more in depth look on the signing here.
• The Oilers are winning, 3 in a row to be exact and points in 7 of their last 8 games. It’s been fun watching Oilers hockey lately, although all this winning is reducing there chances at a top 3 pick and the draft in Sunrise this June.
• Broken record – One think that scares me about all of this winning is that Craig MacTavish thinks that everything is A-ok with this team and decides that this group is the right on going forward. There might not be many changes needed, but I think we can all agree that this defense is still far from competitive NHL caliber.
• Is it just me or does this team seem to always improve near the end of the season? A few years ago players were chasing bonuses, another they said they were trying to build for the next season, this year the speak is the same but we’ve got the added caveat of a coaching change. Once again this concerns me (See above), don’t get me wrong I like wins, but I’m not convinced we’ll see those wins at the same pace next season. I’m preparing for dissapointment.
• Andrew Miller, the opposite of dissapointment, this guy has been playing lights out, 6 points in 3 games playing on a line with Taylor Hall and Anton Lander. He might not be a permanent NHL’r but it a feel good story on a season that doesn’t have many of them.
• Oh and Taylor Hall it’s nice seeing him back in the line-up and scoring points. Helping the Oilers avoid the Tank. With Hall in the line-up Todd Nelson’s record as head coach is 10-5-2, not to shabby.

Things

Speaking of tanking, there has been a lot of talk around just that lately. At the trade deadline we saw the Phoenix Coyotes trade two of their best defenseman in Yandle and Michalek, and arguably their best center Antoine Vermette for picks and prospects. Then there was the Buffalo Sabres, who offloaded pretty much all of their best players including both, BOTH, of their goalies. Again for picks and prospects.

The NHL changed their rules surrounding the draft lottery last year, largely because of the Edmonton Oilers having three first overall and a third overall pick in the last five season. The lottery odds are much tougher now with the 30th place NHL team only having a 20% chance of winning the coveted first pick, 29th place 13.5% and the percentages continue to drop from there. It was thought that this would prevent teams from deliberately “tanking”. Apparently not so, I wonder here if the NHL is done tinkering with the draft rules after what we’ve seen this year? Maybe, Maybe not.

Friend of the Oilers Rig, Troy Martinson sent me his idea of changing the draft rules to help even the odds for all non-playoff teams, have a look.

In an attempt to end draft “tanking” & maintain competitiveness here’s a playoff format for the 14 non-playoff teams to determine #1 overall

-30, 29, 28, 27th overall get a 1st round bye.

-The 2 teams of 14 that are closest to the playoffs at season end are exempt from tournament but keep their picks at the draft leaving 12 picks to playoff for.

-A random draw takes place for match-ups in round 1.

-Losers of round 1 will select between 9th & 12th overall after round 1 with selections based on the ranking of their opponents in round 1. The higher/lower the rank of the winner, the higher/lower their pick.

-Lowest rank winner of round 1 plays 30 & so on -Losers of round 2 selecting between 5th & 8th. The higher/lower the rank of the winner, the higher lower their pick.

-Round 3 consists of 4 teams w/2 lowest ranking teams in 1 semi the 2 highest in the other semi.

-Loser of semis will select 3rd overall based on which of the 2 teams had the worst regular season record.

-Winner of the final picks #1, loser picks #2

While it’s a little bit far fetched in my opinion just think about this for a minute, let it sink in and then think how fun something like this would be, a non-playoff team NHL Bracket, and more hockey to watch in April. This is a win-win.

Other Things

One thing we’ve prided ourselves on doing here at the Oilers Rig is fundraising for great causes. These efforts are continuing, as I’m riding in the MS Johnson bike tour this year with the Battered Piles team. It’s going to be quite the challenge as I’ll be riding my bike 180km over two days, something I’ve not even come close to doing in my training so far. Anyhow I’ve set a goal to be one of the top 10 individual fundraisers for this years event and right now I’m sitting in 6th spot. I originally set a goal of $3000 but because of all of you awesome people who have donated I was able to surpass that, so I raised my goal to $5000 with I believe is something we can achieve. I can’t reach these goals without your help, if you would like to donate please do so by clicking the banner image below.

Thanks for Reading