Sabres' Murray: No immediate appetite to change NHL lottery system
/The Buffalo News outlines how with stud prospects Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel and coming down the pipeline in the 2015 draft, there has been speculation the NHL would do something aside from the existing lottery system to attempt to discourage tanking next season.
Reports suggested the league might use a lottery process for the first five picks, or it would base the lottery odds on teams’ performances over the last three to five seasons.
“We’ve all heard that talk of the five-team, five-year rotation, things like that, but there’s been really no appetite to do that,” Sabres GM Tim Murray said. “They don’t think there’s any appetite right now to change it. I believe if there is an appetite to change it, if they’re going to make a drastic change, it has to be something like three to five years out so it doesn’t affect somebody that’s in that position now.
“From what I understand, they’re not worried about tanking for McDavid and Eichel.”
Murray, incidentally, said the Sabres are prepared to pick first or second this summer and there are four players in the conversation as the top selection.
Source: John Vogl, Buffalo News
Related: Murray says Sabres could take Ekblad with No. 1 pick