Interesting idea about a tournament but I do wonder about the players' interest in it - would they want to risk injury just so that the team gets a top pick (as Filadelphia mentioned)? Also, depending on the format, will the tournament also decide who picks 3rd, 4th ... to 14th? How many games would have to be played?

You could have players rewarded money a la the NHL playoffs. Granted the payout for playoffs is pretty small but you could do this as some incentive. Personally, I think the incentive would be to not finish in "dead last". Also, it would be part of the psychology of it for coaches to have to get their players fired up to play to get a better pick. It would be interesting.

As for how things get decided in terms of 2nd, 3rd, 4th picks etc. well that could go a number of ways. You could still do a lottery based on the regular season standings for the second pick after the winner gets the first or you could go based on tournament finish so if you lose in the finals you pick second if you lose in the semis you pick 3rd or 4th or you could simply have everyone who doesn't win ranked based on regular season finish so only the 1st overall pick would change hands.

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I think the fairest way to determine the order is for the tournament to decide it entirely. I don't think they'd agree to having to play a bunch of games just to find out that the regular season standings will still end up deciding your position if you're not amongst the top 3/4 in the tournament. Also, to ensure equal opportunity, you'd probably have to do a full round robin, which would be 13 games. You can't have some teams not playing others, which would ensure that the winner doesn't properly earn it. And then a playoff? It seems like a lot of games to be played, and considering at what stage of the tournament will the majority of teams be out of the running already, so will they want to play any more games?

Well teams also play a full 82-game season only to have playoffs decide the winner.

But in any case, you'd simply set it up playoff style so the best two non-playoff teams get first round byes and then the math adds up to a full elimination tournament with two teams in the finals at the end. It could be one game, two game or three game series' depending on what you favour.

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I meant a playoff after the full round robin, not in comparison to the real playoffs. So in my scenario that would be 82 + 13 + playoff, which would be too much. That is, if considering the argument that everyone should play each other, but I doubt that would happen since it's too many games.

In your example, by giving the top non-playoff teams a bye, you are giving them a better shot at the top pick already. I don't agree that the two 9th placed teams (arguably) have an easier start to the playoff. The better teams should not be advantaged in this case. Perhaps the two worst teams should have a bye. Or maybe have the format so that the better teams have to play each other first, so that the weaker teams have better odds (by standing) at getting the top pick.

I'm saying no round robin. You seed the teams in a playoff scenario based on regular season finish, therefore teams fight for wins to the very end of the year regardless of standing.

And yes, I do think the better teams should earn an advantage. The point of sports is to win so that should be rewarded. It's the whole point of the tournament from the get-go.

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Fair enough. In that case, in your scenario the tournament should determine the entire draft order, since the argument of having to earn it should be for everyone. In this case, those that lose in the earlier rounds should go into a consolation bracket or placing games to determine the order. They'd likely have one or two extra games at most.

Anyway, it's an interesting idea worth brainstorming, and certainly would be more exciting than the draft lottery. Food for thought.

Interesting idea for sure. I like the idea of a one game approach. Top teams get a bye while the other teams line up for a 1 game elimination and then run the bracket that way. When it gets down to the finals, run a best of 3.

It would force teams to be as competitive as possible year in year out.

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They wouldn't need byes -- don't forget about Quebec City and Toronto 2.0 coming in 2014!

This would be a sweet and completely original idea. If my team missed the playoffs, I'd be excited to watch it. You'd arguably see teams stocking up at the trade deadline in order to compete in this mini-tourney.

If you're gonna do it, do it completely -- have every pick determined this way. Use goals for as the determining factor for those elminated at the same time. Bettman wants more goals; you'd see teams trying to score 9 in round I in order to ensure that if they get knocked out in the second round, they'd still get the best of the consolation picks.

The only problem is it might deter from the first round of the playoffs a bit?

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You could either delay the playoffs by a week and have the tournament held during that week or you could wait until those nights during the first and second round when most series have wrapped up and therefore the schedule is light/non-existent. It's not perfect but it works.

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