from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,

And then there are the details surrounding the 2020 draft and, more specifically, the draft lottery. There have been a number of scenarios floated. One that seems to be gaining traction is revisiting the 2005 draft when, after the 2004-05 season was wiped out after a lockout, all 30 teams had a chance of winning the draft lottery. The way the lottery worked in 2005, teams that had missed the playoffs and did not have a first overall pick the previous three seasons (Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Columbus, Rangers) had three balls in the draw; teams that had just one playoff appearance or a first-overall selection (Anaheim, Atlanta, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, Phoenix) in that time span received two balls; and all the others (Boston, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, New Jersey, Islanders, Ottawa, Philadelphia, San Jose, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington) received one each. Teams with three balls held a 6.3 percent chance of winning the lottery, those with two had a 4.2 percent chance of winning and those with one held a 2.1 percent chance of winning the Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes.

“We are nowhere near to making those determinations at this point,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to TheHockeyNews.com. “Any answer I might be able to give you would be complete speculation.”

If you want to talk about permanently altering the draft lottery process to what the league did in 2005, that’s certainly a worthy and relevant discussion to have because it makes a lot of sense.

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