Brooks: no tears are being shed here over the plight of the Red Wings.

The Detroit Red Wings suffered a pretty devastating hit on Friday when they saw themselves go from favorites to claim the first overall pick in the 2020 National Hockey League Entry Draft to falling all the way down to fourth as a result of the NHL's Draft Lottery process. It was a tough pill to swallow for an organization that is coming off a terrible season and although most fans are sympathetic to the plight of the Red Wings some are showing considerably less empathy. 

In a recent article for the New York Post, NHL insider Larry Brooks made it quite clear that he does not feel the least bit sorry for the Red Wings misfortune. In fact he pointed to the fact that the organization was historically arrogant during its run of success and may even be relishing the fact that they dropped so many spots in the draft lottery.

From Brooks:

Sorry, no tears are being shed here over the plight of the Red Wings, whose historically bad season got them no more than the fourth-overall pick of the draft as a consequence of the way the pingpong balls bounced in Friday’s lottery drawing.

Brooks believes the current draft lottery system, one that protects from teams potentially tanking the season in order to obtain the top picks in the draft, is a good one. In fact the veteran Rangers reporter seems quite content that the outcome of the draft lottery will mean that future NHL star Alexis Lafreniere will get the chance to play on a decent, or perhaps even good, team right out of the gate. Additionally Brooks points to the fact that the Colorado Avalanche suffered a similar fate not so long ago when the New Jersey Devils jumped several spots in the lottery to nab first overall pick Nico Hischier, but points to the fact that you would likely draft the player the Avalanche eventually got, Cale Makar(4th overall) or even Elias Petterson (5th overall) of the Vancouver Canucks over Hischier were that draft to get a re-do today. 

Sure it is unlikely that the Red Wings will find themselves in a similar position to the Avalanche when it comes to how good their pick will turn out to be, but Brooks doesn't care. The long time NHL analyst is tired of seeing star level players waste some of their prime years on bad teams and makes an excellent case for why that has been a detriment to the NHL in recent years. 

Again from Brooks:

Did it help the NHL that Steven Stamkos, first-overall in 2008, went to the playoffs once in his first five years, or that John Tavares, first a year later, also went to the tournament once in his first five years?

Who does it help that Taylor Hall, first in 2010, did not participate in the playoffs until his ninth season? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, first a year after that, didn’t make it until his Year 7. Connor McDavid, first in 2015, has all but been hidden from international view playing tor a team that made the playoffs once in his first four seasons, and Jack Eichel, second that season, hasn’t made it yet in five years.

It is hard to disagree with Brooks here. Of course you want the NHL's bottom teams to have a chance at being competitive later down the line but you also want a chance to see young stars flourish in the league. It may be because it is the most obvious one at the moment, but I can't help but wonder what Jack Eichel's career might have been like so far if he wasn't stuck in perhaps the NHL's most dysfunctional organization.