Why Tanking In The NHL Doesn't Work

Tanking for the best player in the draft seems like a good idea? Right? More often than not, it doesn’t work out in the long run. Especially in the NHL.

Despite the NHL Draft Lottery, teams still believe that tanking is the best course of action to get the talent they may need. You may get a talented player such as Connor Bedard, or a Connor McDavid who are both generational players, but it doesn’t solve the problem of the rest of the team.

In the NFL, it may work out because there is no lottery system, so if you are the worst team, you’re going to get that first pick. In the NHL, there is still only an 18.5% chance you get that highly coveted first overall pick.

In the 2016-2017 NHL season, the Colorado Avalanche finished 21 standings points worse than the next closest team and still had three teams land above them in the lottery.

Granted, it worked out for them getting the best pick in that draft and arguably the best defenseman in the world right now in Cale Makar.

The consensus first and second overall pick turned out to also be underwhelming picks with Nico Hischier just starting to get his footing in New Jersey and Nolan Patrick already out of the league.

One of the biggest examples of a failed tank job is the Buffalo Sabres. Since 2014, they finished last in the league four times and only got the first pick twice.

One thing that works against the team is working to lose. As professional athletes, they work on routine and culture in the locker room. Losing is not a good culture to establish in a professional locker room.

Going back to the Sabres, they have plenty of young talent with Owen Power, Tage Thompson, and JJ Peterka, but have failed to find a playoff spot since 2011 and hold the longest playoff drought in the NHL.

Buffalo has been through seven head coaches in that span. They start out every season promising and always seem to spiral out by the end.

A point of a tank is to get yourself high draft picks to gain ground in the standings quickly, but Buffalo has not seemed to get the memo, having been stuck low in the standings and trading away some of their top talent in Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Eichel (second overall pick).

One team who worked it a little better was Edmonton who gathered four first overall picks from 2010 to 2015 with their last one changing the franchise getting McDavid.

This is another team though where the ultimate goal of a championship has not been achieved yet. They have 2 first overall picks in McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and a top goal scorer in Leon Draisaitl and have only gotten to the Stanley Cup but yet to win.

Some of the best players in the league were drafted outside the top 10. David Pastrnak was drafted 25th overall, Draisaitl and Brayden Point were drafted in the second round. Even Jesper Bratt, who is a first line winger, was drafted in the sixth round.

Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, went undrafted and became the best player of all time.

Anywhere you draft, you are banking on talent that isn’t guaranteed to translate to the NHL. You may be throwing darts blindfolded later on in the draft, but you could still find talent without tanking.

Tanking puts a stench into your team that is very hard to get out. Building a culture of losing is one of the worst things you can do, because it gives players the right to be lazy and get rewarded.

Lastly, look at Arizona who tried to tank, lost their rink, played in a college rink to replace it, never got approved for a new rink and ended up relocating to Utah.

Getting stuck with a middle of the pack draft pick is a rough fate year in and year out, but keeping a winning culture is something that is a lot harder to make up.

Time and time again, it has proven that tanking for a first overall pick has worked out in the long run. Some of the most notable tank jobs are still suffering.

With a lottery system, tanking doesn’t even guarantee you the first pick, so there is no point in sacrificing a team for one player. It never works.

Tristan Kunec is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email tqk5432@psu.edu.