from Brian Costello of The Hockey News,

If you’re Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche, for example, you’re now in a position to draft 10th overall in June, with a 3.5 percent chance of winning the McDavid lottery. If you can manage your roster in such a way as to get as few points as possible in your remaining eight games, maybe a few teams slip ahead of you in the standings and you move to seventh pick – with a 6.5 percent chance of getting McDavid.

Don’t you do that? It’s in the best interests of your organization.

Despite what some people think, there’s nothing nefarious about it. You’re gathering information on your players. Don’t you play Reto Berra for a good chunk of games down the stretch rather than Semyon Varlamov? You paid a second-round pick to get Berra a year ago, aren’t you trying to determine if he has what it takes to keep the job for next season? You’re trying to assess the development of 2010 first-rounder Joey Hishon and he’s averaged just under nine minutes in five recent games. Don’t you put him out there for 18-20 minutes and in key situations down the stretch?

And maybe in the process you double your odds of winning McDavid or move up a handful of very important spots in the order of selection for the most important draft in a decade.

You can make a similar case for Philadelphia. Or Florida soon enough. Or San Jose. Or several other teams. Let’s see Anthony Stolarz between the pipes in the NHL. Or Rocco Grimaldi on the power play. Or Konrad Abeltshauser killing penalties.

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