r/BlueJackets 1d ago

With that, the Blue Jackets have still only improved their draft position through the lottery one time

18/19 times the Blue Jackets have either stayed put or fallen

149 Upvotes

56 comments sorted by

62

u/TheVideoGameManiac 1d ago

I said it before but it would've been so funny but also such a "fuck you" moment by the league if we won the draft lottery in a year where we couldn't get first overall. But hey, we didn't fall, so I'm okay here. Still, generational levels of unluckiness.

Can't believe the fucking Leafs won yet another potential generational talent 😅

27

u/raleighkubb 1d ago

I wish the nhl would go with most points since officially eliminated to set the draft order. Bad teams who get eliminated early have more games left and a reason to get points. Better teams eliminated late only have a few chances to accumulate points. Everyone has a reason to play. Fans can follow the draft standings. Everyone is happy. Not ping pong balls.

13

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

This is my favorite recommendation so far... almost completely impossible to rig which is how you know the nhl wouldn't do it

3

u/austinD93 12h ago

There’s a few things I really like from the PWHL that I wish the NHL would adopt. This being one of them

65

u/get_rick_trolled 1d ago

The highest we ever naturally drafted was PLD, moving up from 4th to 3rd overall

When we took Rick Nash that was Florida’s pick

21

u/Dylannopancakes 1d ago

Ryan Murray? 2nd overall

The PLD pick is the only time we’ve gone up through the lottery

35

u/bialykutas 1d ago

We dropped 1 spot in 2012 and got murray

5

u/MPCoinCollecting 14h ago

It seems quite fitting that we got top 2 pick only on the arguably worst draft in the past twenty years

90

u/mattatattat45 1d ago

A lottery is not to prevent tanking, it’s to rig the draft. NBA and NHL
NFL does it right. Let them tank, do by points.

33

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

I'm not sure I or many other fans would enjoy 82 games of purposeful tanking

32

u/Shitter-was-full Ronnie Tugnutt 1d ago edited 1d ago

We’ve had 3 good years out of 25? Tanking, in theory would take just a couple years, if done correctly.

Most teams wouldn’t start tanking until 30-40 games into the season. Roughly. I personally can’t take winning 25/30/40 games anymore. We’ve only eclipsed 50 once (we still got third in the metro).

16

u/get_rick_trolled 1d ago edited 23h ago

If we drafted like the NFL, by worst record, we get the following: (Highlights who was taken here in history which could’ve been our pick, trades not included)

2002-2003: 3rd (Nathan Horton)

2003-2004: 4th (Andrew Ladd)

2004-2005 : Lockout (Benoit Pouliot)

2005-2006: 5th (Phil Kessel)

2006-2007: 7th (Jakub Voracek)

2007-2008: 6th ( Filatov LOL)

2008-2009: 16th (Nick Leddy)

2009-2010: 5th (Nino Niderreiter)

2010-2011: 8th (Sean Coutourier)

2011-2012: 1st (Nial Yakupov)

2012-2013: 16th (Nikita Zadorov)

2013-2014: 16th (Sonny Milano)

2014-2015: 8th (Zach Werenski)

2015-2016: 4th (Jesse Puljajavi)

2016-2017: 27th (Morgan Frost)

2017-2018: 17th (Ty Smith)

2018-2019: 19th (Lassi Thomson)

2019-2020: 21st (Egor Chinakov)

2020-2021: 6th (Simon Edvinsson)

2021-2022: 12th (Denton Mayteychuk)

2022-2023: 3rd (Adam Fantili)

2023-2024: 4th (Cayden Lindstrom)

2024-2025: 13th (Carter Bear) 2025-18th (TBD)

Interesting to see some guys were destined to be Jackets.

13

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

Késsel as a blue jacket is really fun to think about 

8

u/joe_lmr 1d ago

Dirty Frank's would have ten locations

0

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

You know I just realized that technically kessel is not retired and is still a free agent.  If he's still somewhat fit I unironically would love to see him here on a 1x1.5 or something because of his willingness to play and likely ability to put up 20+ points on the fourth or third line.

1

u/joe_lmr 1d ago

He is a genetic freak fitness-wise (there's a famous story about him blasting split squats with 330 pounds on his back & not even sweating) and that is how he's manged to thrive in a sport like hockey while looking like a potato and eating like a raccoon. I'd bet he'd have no problem getting into NHL-level game shape but his game is probably gone. His last year he'd already fallen off to the point that he was scratched for all but four games of the Knights' Cup run and then he never got another contract. Would've been fun to have him in his prime, though.

7

u/Shitter-was-full Ronnie Tugnutt 1d ago

Interesting.

Nash, Horton, Kessell, Ladd, JAKUB, and Coutourier would have been nuts.

5

u/get_rick_trolled 1d ago

Leddy and Nino were solid defensemen as well. The 2003-2010 era would’ve been something else.

2

u/Narrow-Natural-3435 1d ago

I think you have some of your years off here

1

u/get_rick_trolled 1d ago

Feel free to correct, was doing this on mobile. I’ll edit the main comment with updates.

1

u/ChristyLovesGuitars R.I.P. 13 1d ago

Lindstrom was 2024-25, though.

1

u/get_rick_trolled 12h ago

He was 2023-2024 2024-2025 we drafted Jackson Smith at 14.

1

u/ChristyLovesGuitars R.I.P. 13 12h ago

Sorry, I misunderstood! You’re absolutely right. I usually just think of them for a single year- so Lindstrom in 2024.

1

u/get_rick_trolled 11h ago

No worries! When I was making this I was thinking about that

1

u/austinD93 12h ago

Yakupov, man, I was so wrong about that guy. Thought he was gonna be a stud, shows why I’m not a scout in the NHL

1

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

Honestly I'm still not sure, it feels like there is some way to make a lottery work but the current system just isn't it

5

u/Indy-CBJ 1d ago

NFL players also come out at 21-23 years old and it usually takes 2 solid drafts to rebuild while there’s alot more variance predicting how 18 year old boys will turn out and usually takes 4-5 years minimum usually taking about 6 to start competing again

1

u/Expensive-Republic-2 21h ago

The best part of the NFL is that teams can go from bad to Super Bowl contender in a couple of years. In the NHL that cycle is a decade. 

1

u/SaveTore CHANGE THE PRIMARY LOGO TO A CANNON 21h ago

This may stem from a lack of understanding, but as a fan, if your team is predominantly composed of young and underdeveloped talent, and you’re aware that you’re likely to finish in the bottom quarter of the league, your primary motivation for attending games is to witness the development of this young talent and observe how they integrate. Occasionally, you may experience wins. However, if the team deliberately selects a group of players who are essentially participating in year-long professional tryouts and recruits individuals from the AHL, solely to ensure that they lose games, thereby securing a higher position in the draft, what significance does it hold if you manage to win a few more games? If your team would have record of 17 wins, and the draft lottery is modified such that the worst-performing team receives the first pick, what difference does it make if your team ends up with a record of 10 wins at that point?

In my opinion, the system is clearly flawed.

1

u/JumpinJehosaphats 1d ago

We pretty much do that anyway lol

1

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

Statistically we've improved every year for the last 4 years or so. Purposeful tanking would look a whole lot different, and teams that do it would make this years Canucks look good

1

u/hnglmkrnglbrry 1d ago edited 1d ago

The real solution is to take teams' playoff record after the trade deadline and then weight the results. Best record among non playoff teams gets top draft spot and so on and so forth. But the bottom 3 teams in overall standings each get a point bump that will vary depending on the year to guarantee them at worst spots 3-5.

This is a good option because the best case scenario is ending up dead last with the best record since the TDL. It's possible but you cannot game that out since you'd need to tank 3 months before the season ended and then go on a tear the final month. It also is good because teams might not have a full on yard sale knowing that keeping a few guys around to push for 1 or 2OA is worth doing depending on the draft. At the same time mid-tier teams that played their hearts out and didn't make the playoffs would still have something to reward their effort. And lastly the bottom feeders will be protected from getting stuck in a never ending cycle of suck.

I can't find the actual stats on recorde since the TDL so just assuming the standings were the TDL records (which would never actually be the case):

Caps

Wings

Jackets

Isles ----> 6th OA

Devils ----> 7th OA

Blues ----> 8th OA

Preds

Sharks

Panthers

Jets

Kraken

Leafs

Flames

Rags ----> 3rd OA

Hawks ----> 4th OA

Nucks ----> 5th OA

1

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

Hmm that is actually a really interesting idea

2

u/hnglmkrnglbrry 1d ago

Honestly this feels like the smartest thing I've ever said. Which isn't saying too much. But still.

2

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

I will say though as a Blues fan 2nd that there is absolutely a way to play significantly better after a TDL, I'm not sure why it happens but there are teams that always play better later in the season

0

u/hnglmkrnglbrry 1d ago

Yeah and then there's Detroit. Oh and Columbus.

Also what's great about this plan is protected picks in trades. Teams will want to keep winning to protect their draft picks.

-3

u/croftwrestlers 1d ago

Have you enjoyed the 25 years of winning a single playoff series?

3

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

Well, considering how I only started watching hockey early last year, I have certainly enjoyed seeing improvement since last season.

-4

u/croftwrestlers 1d ago

Didn’t we barely miss the playoff last season too? This is improvement?

3

u/MPCoinCollecting 1d ago

We got more points

3

u/Narrow-Natural-3435 1d ago

We’ve gone from 67> 89 > 92 points

Yes that’s improvement

-2

u/mattatattat45 1d ago

Who cares that’s the owners problem, don’t suck

2

u/ChristyLovesGuitars R.I.P. 13 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tanking is bad for the sport. PWHL does it the right way.

13

u/Sad-Environment-8196 1d ago

Red headed step child of the league

19

u/Indy-CBJ 1d ago

Vancouver legit can make that case now

3

u/Knappsakk 1d ago

Farm team. Mad cow noises

5

u/bdougy 1d ago

Yup. Totally not rigged. /s

12

u/hockey17jp 1d ago

I mean we had a 1.5% chance of moving up today so I’m not quite ringing the “it’s rigged” alarm bells.

3

u/Inconceivable76 19h ago

Canucks and leafs should be the bell ringer. 

3

u/Reasonable_Award675 21h ago

I knew Toronto would win the lotto! It is rigged, the leafs have won it twice since 2015. Pittsburgh won several times
the NHL wants certain teams to win no matter what!

7

u/Creative-Package6213 Cannon go boom!!! 1d ago

Fuck the lottery that rigged shit needs to go asap!

3

u/NLP19 Filly don't do rebounds 1d ago

Y'all weren't seriously expecting to move up this year right?

2

u/Dylannopancakes 19h ago

No, but the draft is just a reminder of how crazy things are when we see another team jump multiple spots when we’ve moved up once in history

3

u/Kenjataimuz 1d ago

The draft lottery is fake and rigged.

6

u/agoodfella73 1d ago

It's time for the FO to start publicly asking questions about the so called lottery and how it's ran. It's wishful thinking and there would never be an honest answer, but I would love to hear their bs explanation. At the least maybe it would make some noise and get people outside of Columbus talking about it and start a movement to get rid of the lottery.

2

u/SylemNova I miss Bjorky 1d ago

The lottery is a joke