Connor Bedard Sweepstakes - Draft Lottery May 8th

[pmorrow]

Thread tracking teams in the running for the highest odds to select first overall in 2023 and select top ranked Connor Bedard.

Who are you rooting for to get Bedard? Who NEEDS him the most?

"As the league reduced the number of lottery drawings before the 2021–22 season, this resulted in two lotteries being held for this draft. Beginning with this lottery and continuing onward, the teams winning one of the two drawings are allowed to move up a maximum of ten spots in the draft order and a team is only allowed to win the lottery twice in a five-year period.[6] As a result only the eleven lowest finishing teams were eligible to win the first overall selection. The team that won the first drawing would move up to the first selection if they were seeded 1–11, teams seeded 12–16 would move up ten spots. If the team seeded 12 won the first draw they would secure the second overall pick and the team seeded first would secure the first overall pick. For the second draw, the fifteen remaining teams were re-seeded and the teams seeded 1–12 could move up to the second overall pick if it was still available after the end of the first draw, teams seeded 13–15 could move up a maximum of ten spots. If the second overall pick was not available to the winner of the second draw that team would be awarded the next highest available selection. After the two draws were complete, all remaining draft picks were assigned to the remaining teams in inverse order of regular season finish."

[Magicstew]

Arizona

[senryu]

Arizona

[fungchen3]

Who needs him the most = Yotes

Who I want to see get him = Flyers

Who I think wins the lottery = Blackhawks

[Swarley]

Who needs him the most = Yotes

Who I want to see get him = Flyers

Who I think wins the lottery = Blackhawks

This sums up my thoughts as well, why the Flyers decided to finally play hockey now just to hurt there chances. They will choke and miss the playoffs like always but not finish low enough to get him

[Belexus75]

i think best for the league would be if Chicago gets him...

also i think last 2 years bottom team won the lotter and i dont think that happened prior to that so im going to guess that this year team with most odds will not land him

what will be interesting to see is who goes second even top 5...is Mitchkov going to be selected based on talent or based on contract and situation over seas?

if situation with Mitchkov was different this would smell a lot like Crosby vs Ovechkin but in the same draft year..

[rufio.85]

The Coyotes, no doubt. They need to give some hope to that fan base!

[berni67]

Don’t forget SanJose in the mix

[Axeman33]

Vancouver shouldn't be in the mix but they are.

[tweetdrivr]

Bedard and Matthews in Arizona…that’ll be fun!

Nothing good should happen to the Chicago organization for a very long time.

[Feenom]

Bedard and Matthews in Arizona…that’ll be fun!

Nothing good should happen to the Chicago organization for a very long time.

Agree with the Chicago reference but will it fun in Zona if they have to play in front of 4000 people? Move that team already Bettman. (Plus I think AM gets handed a blank check in Toronto)

[Canucks_fan18]

Come on home to Vancouver! Didn't think I would be saying this but here we are.

[tweetdrivr]

Come on home to Vancouver! Didn't think I would be saying this but here we are.

Ah the fickle winds of fandom. In the Canucks thread they were a shoe in for the playoffs and now they are probably dead last. The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle eh?

[hockeyrobot]

Detroit.

[Pengwin7]

If the NHL does/did have some internal deviants at play, the following teams should not get Bedard:
1. Chicago - for all things Kyle Beach and (to a much, much, MUCH lesser degree) also for the incredibly obvious TankCity work by Kyle Davidson. That couples with them having multiple cups for TankCity work 15+ years ago. (P.Kane, Toews drafts)
2. Arizona - because new ownership has been an absolute shitshow and (I think most people agree), hockey needs to get the eff out of the desert

Teams that also probably don't/shouldn't get Bedard for various reasons:
3. Philadelphia - their ownership and current GM are both incredible losers... I don't wish anything good for either of them.
4. Montreal - sorry, you just went from 2nd best result in 2021 (Stanley Cup) to #1 overall pick in 2022 draft... all because of a horrendous trade move on Christian Dvorak that was SOOO bad that they stayed out of bottom 10 territory.
5. Anaheim - sorry, with that low "internal cap"... you aren't really trying as hard as other teams to be competitive.

Teams that I'd be all about seeing Bedard on:
6. NY Islanders - they haven't had a super-mega-duper star in a long-long-long time. Time to renew that NYR-NYI rivalry
7. San Jose - other than signing Evander Kane (instead of re-upping Pavelski), the team has made great attempts to be competitive. Love to see a gift for Mike Grier as new GM.
8. Vancouver - yeah, I'm all for it. Probably the most deserving fans-in-waiting... not their fault GMs keep blundering moves. Not a big fan of ownership.
9. Columbus - this team has been TRYING to make something happen, giving it their best annually. 20+ years in league, not much in playoff success.

Teams that I think will actually have a strongly successful year and have odds too low, but I'd be up for them:
10. Seattle
11. Detroit
12. Buffalo (BUF doesn't deserve Bedard either... they've stunk too long... gotten their share of draft pick luck.)

Those are the contenders, IMO.


Toughest thing about this year... there are INSANELY great prizes shaping up at #3 (whoever isn't taken at #2 of Fantilli or Michkov), #4 (Leo Carlsson), #5 (Branden Yager)... Dalibor Dvorsky has big upside too!
And all these teams know it. Especially CHI and ARI... full full-on tank mode.


[As for the OP's question of who "NEEDS" him the most... Chicago - obviously... even Arizona has a C1-Cooley and C2-Geekie in place with Guenther, Keller as high-end complimentary wings. Chicago has almost nothing beyond Nazar (a first line wing or C2, IMO), Korchinski, S.Jones, and Reichel. They "need" a C1 bad. But anybody that advocates it would be "good for the league" is clearly light on ethics and morality. Chicago needs to absolutely stink for... about 10 years, IMO... to pay off the Beach debt.]