Preds fans hope Florida takes a dive

Toronto Globe and Mail writer James Mirtle just posted a good summary on his blog of how the NHL's draft lottery works. It isn't terribly different from the way the NBA's lottery works if you are familiar with that method.

Basically, the 14 teams that don't make the playoffs are put into the lottery drawing to arrange their draft order (This is done so that the worst team in the league doesn't automatically get the #1 pick, which would cause teams to intentionally lose at the end of a year). It is a little complicated in that no team can move down more than one spot from where they "should" be, and no team can move up more than 4 spots.

As of right now for instance, the Predators are just out of the playoffs and would be the last team in the lottery (#14). At best we could move up to pick #10, but couldn't do worse than #14.

But the best part for Preds fans? Everyone remember that trade we made with Florida for Tomas Vokoun that everyone was so upset about? "We gave up Vokoun and didn't get anything in return!" It was a pure salary dump, meant to unload Vokoun's big contract and get the team on the salary cap floor. Well, we got Florida's second round pick last year, and their first and second round picks this year. Where is Florida in the lottery at this point? 3rd from the last! Meaning that the Preds (who own Florida's first pick) have a 14.2% chance of getting the #1 pick in the draft, and it isn't too inconceivable to think that we could end up with the #1, #10, #31, #40 (and more) picks. The worse Florida finishes, the better the Preds chances of ending up with the #1 pick.

This draft is largely considered one of the deepest and most talented in years (see a mock draft here), and Poile has proved himself as a fabulous GM, especially when it comes to drafting.

I'd love to make the playoffs this year, and go deep - heck, win it all - but the great thing is that as good as we do, we can still improve our position in the draft with every loss Florida racks up.

If Vokoun really loves his old team so much, i wonder if he'll let a few weak ones through the wickets for us... :-)