from Adrian Dater of the Denver Post,

Should the Avalanche tank it to get the best shot at the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft?

Publicly, I will say no. Privately? Yes, a thousand times yes.

Don't misunderstand. I am not promoting the throwing of games, of athletes intentionally making bad plays or coaches intentionally benching their best players in key moments of games. That is wrong.

But if I am a general manager of a team whose best hope for better days would come from blue-chip draft picks? Sure, I'd sell off some of my better assets at the trade deadline, write off the rest of this season and "engineer" my team the best way possible to get the first pick. Does that make me unethical? Oh, well. It's sports.

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