Who deserves Connor Bedard?

The NHL will hold its annual draft lottery tonight. Special attention is being paid this year because of Connor Bedard - an anticipated generational talent who is certain to be picked first overall.

Here are the teams that have a chance of getting the first pick with their records from last season and odds of winning the lottery...

Anaheim Ducks, 23-47-12 (58 points) - 18.5%

Columbus Blue Jackets, 25-48-9 (59) - 13.5% 

Chicago Blackhawks, 26-49-7 (59) - 11.5%

San Jose Sharks, 22-44-16 (60) - 9.5%

Montreal Canadiens, 31-45-6  (68) - 8.5%

Arizona Coyotes, 28-40-14 (70) - 7.5%

Philadelphia Flyers, 31-38-13 (75) - 6.5%

Washington Capitals, 35-37-10 (80) - 6.0% 

Detroit Red Wings, 35-37-10 (80) 5.0%

St. Louis Blues, 37-38-7 (81) - 3.5%

Vancouver Canucks, 38-37-7 (83) - 3.0%

Which team deserves Connor Bedard? Who the hell knows. But there are four teams that shouldn't be in the running...

The Chicago Blackhawks should be disqualified from the draft lottery. Not only were they the most obvious about tanking the 2022-23 season, the organization is made up of good-for-nothing reprobates who looked the other way while a young prospect was sexually abused right in front of them. 

GM Stan Bowman. Coach Joel Quenneville. Captain Jonathan Toews. They all chose the team and their own personal interests over doing the right thing. 

And, in case you think that those people are all gone and the team has learned its lesson, here is team owner Rocky Wirtz's response to a question about the situation...

If no one wants to kick the Arizona Coyotes out of the NHL, they should at least be ruled out of the draft lottery so the greatest prospect since Sidney Crosby doesn't have to be a part of the biggest travesty in professional sport. 

Last year, the Coyotes played their home games in a college arena with a capacity of less than 5,000 and still didn;t sell out every game! Compare that to Bedard's junior team, playing in Regina Saskatchewan (population >230,000), who averaged 4,500 fans per game for crying out loud.

On 17 June 2022, The Philadelphia Flyers hired John Tortorella to be their head coach. Not only is he a terrible coach, he has a well-earned reputation for ruining players and destroying teams.  In 20 seasons in the league he has been fired by four teams and his teams have missed the playoffs or been eliminated in the first round 11 times. John Turturro would have been a better choice.

Subjecting Bedard to Tortorella would be cruel and unusual punishment.

Finally, the organizational incompetence of the St. Louis Blues should prfecluding them from drafting first overall in June. Peter Chiarelli (who loses everywhere he goes) and Doug Armstrong managed to turn a Stanley Cup champion into a non-contender in just four years. They went from Ryan O'Reilly, Alex Pietrangelo and Vladimir Tarasenko to Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn. Imagine what they could do with Connor Bedard.