WWYDW: Trading Tanev

Trevor Linden is finally saying the “r’ word, and the Canucks appear more willing than ever to undergo a traditional tear-down rebuild. Should they decide to start selling off veterans for futures, their biggest trade chip is going to be 27-year-old right-handed defenseman Chris Tanev. Tanev is arguably the team’s best defender, but is likely to be in his early thirties by the time the team is competitive again.

That brings us to this week’s question. Would you trade Chris Tanev? If so, what do you see as a realistic return?

As much as I am disappointed with us getting a 5th, I really don’t think that any changes need to be made to the existing lottery system if the idea is to reward tanking. The only reason why it stinks is that this system should have been in placed before Oiler’s 10 year tank job…

The system worked exactly as it should. There’s no reason to penalize teams for being not quite good enough but falling short of truly abysmal. If anything, steady progression from bottom to middle should be a goal, not a curse versus bottoming out until everything clicks into place when Mr. Superstar comes along. The only reason tanking is a thing is because North American sports have very few distinctions of note other than the playoff final – no Champions League, no promotion/relegation, no serious derby trophies, etc. Those are all things that keep the games worthwhile even when the big prize is out of reach. But here, fans have adopted the absurd notion that losing the 7th game of the Championship is as bad as, or worse than, being at the bottom of the league since “ZOMG HOW MANY CUPZ” is the only distinction despite 97% of teams not winning the Cup each year.

I think that the percentages should be changed. The system is weighted too much to prevent tanking .

I believe the Canucks had the highest probability of finishing 4th. I believe the probability should mirror the team’s placement. This year, the Canucks probability would have changed as follows:

Current system: 1st (12.1%); 2nd (11.8%); 3rd (11.3%); 4th (34%); 5th (30.7%)
Proposed system: 1st (12.1%); 2nd (34%); 3rd (30.7%); 4th (11.8%); 5th (11.3%)

The idea would be that the team would have the greatest probability to stay in the same spot or drop on place.

The first place team would still have a 66% chance of not winning the lottery compared to a 82% chance today.

Bottom five teams go into the hat (or get 1 ball in the machine). Draft order is a simple draw, with each team having an equal chance. First drawn gets first pick, second drawn gets second pick, etc. Rest of the league picks in order of finish. It’s simple and prevents tanking without inadvertently rewarding good teams with high draft picks.

My real preference: get rid of the draft altogether. Also get rid of restricted free agency and any player salary maximums (e.g the rookie max). Keep the team salary cap. Let teams bid on who they want and can fit under their team salary cap regardless of age.

If there is a belief that good management is what wins championships, let the GMs build their rosters without the fetters of drafts and other restrictions on player movement. The only restrictions on roster construction would be their existing contracts and the team salary cap.

Leave the system as is with a small tweak. If you have had a top 3 pick 2 of the last 3 years you are excluded from the lottery.

The maximum impact of this would occur if all 3 lottery winning teams finished the season with more points than you. You would draft 3 spots back from where you finished.

Seems to me the draft worked fine, until Edmonton came along. The teams that were bad, everyone knew were bad and they weren’t going to finish much higher than they did. I say revert to that system, but add provisions to not allow any team to pick top 5 that has picked top 5 , for 5 years after their pick. For example, if you pick anywhere in the top 5 this year, the best you can pick for the following 5 years is 6th. And to help prevent tanking, place limits on how many AHL type players are eligible to play, barring injuries, and come down hard on violators by taking away that tanked pick