With a whopping 60 points thus far, your beloved Colorado Avalanche are officially ranked 28^th out of 30 teams.  Only Ottawa and Edmonton trail the Avalanche in total points this season.  The fact that Ottawa trails makes me feel a little better, since that’s where “Anderson the Sieve” ended up.

Anyway, let’s talk about next year’s draft for a moment.  The NHL has a “Lottery Draft”.  What does this mean?  Well, it is really very complicated, but after a bit of digging through old blog sites and articles, I will try and lay it out as easily as possible.

The 14 teams that DO NOT make the playoffs take part in the lottery (unless they have traded away their first round pick to another team – in which case that team will get the original teams lottery entry).  It is a “weighted” lottery, meaning that the team that finishes last has the best chance of winning the coveted first overall pick.  The Weights are as follows – Last: 25%, 29^th: 18.8%, 28^th: 14.2%, 27^th: 10.7%, 26^th: 8.1%, 25^th: 6.2%, 24^th: 4.7%, 23^rd: 3.6%, 22^nd: 2.7%, 21^st: 2.1%, 20^th: 1.5%, 19^th: 1.1%, 18^th: 0.8%, & 17^th: 0.5%.

So, here’s how it works – The teams are assigned a series of numbers.  Fourteen balls, numbered 1 to 14, are placed in a lottery machine.  The machine spits out four balls, forming a series of numbers.  The four-digit series resulting from the expulsion of the balls is matched against a probability chart that divided the possible combinations among the 14 participating clubs.  If your team matches, you win!

Here’s where it gets even more interesting – The team selected in the drawing may not move up more than four positions in the draft order, thus only the five clubs with the fewest regular season points have the opportunity to select first overall.  Also, no team can move down more than one position as a result of the draft lottery drawing.

Clear as mud?  Yeah, that’s what I thought…

Anyway, with our Avs hovering near the bottom of the barrel, that number one overall pick looks like a real possibility.  So, who would they take?  Well, I think I’ll save my opinions of the draft eligible players for my next installment…

(For more basic information regarding the NHL Entry Draft, check out this article – http://proicehockey.about.com/cs/prospects/a/nhl_draft_basic.html)

(tripadvisor.com)

Today is the “day after” for three teams in the NHL. First the Avalanche who I explained in my recap played a pathetic and embarrassing 3rd period last night against the Minnesota Wild. It is also the “day after” for the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins who are the two teams affect by the devastating hit Zdeno Chara put on Max Pacioretty last night. Unless you haven’t turned on a computer today you have likely seen the hit but if not you may see it here. (more…)