NHL proposes all non-playoff teams get shot at No. 1 draft pick

The annual NHL Entry Draft could be getting a major facelift.

That’s one of the big revelations from the league’s latest CBA offer, obtained by ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun on Friday.

According to LeBrun’s report, the NHL has proposed the implementation of a draft lottery in which “all non-Playoff teams compete for the opportunity to choose first overall.”

Under the NHL’s current format, only the bottom four teams (26th through 30th place) are eligible to receive the first overall draft pick.

This system has been in place for 18 years, designed partly in response to accusations the Ottawa Senators “tanked” the end of the 1992 season to select Alexander Daigle first overall in 1993.

For more on how the current system works, here’s James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail:

The lottery system is pretty complicated, but the basics are that teams can only move up a maximum of four spots and down a maximum of one spot.

Only one team “wins” the lottery – everyone else moves based on the team that won.

That leaves every team with a maximum of only three different spots they can pick in.

As such, the lottery doesn’t change much in terms of overall landscape. Teams that bottom out end up at the top of the draft, and teams that narrowly missed the playoffs are stuck drafting in the teens.

What the NHL is proposing falls more in line with the NBA Draft Lottery, in which all 14 non-playoff teams have a shot at the first overall pick.

This can lead to some wild results, like in 1993 — that year, Orlando won the No. 1 pick in the draft despite finishing the 1992 season with a 41-41 record and holding just a 1.52 percent chance of winning the lottery.