Read My Newest Blog Post:

Do NHL Teams Need to Lose to Win? Part 1

September 9, 2025

Bad teams earn high draft picks. High draft picks have the best chance of turning into elite players. Elite players are often the difference between a good team and a Stanley Cup champion. This raises the question: should teams deliberately finish near the bottom of the standings to secure multiple elite players they can build around for a future Cup run? In this first part of a two-part series, I’ll define what constitutes a “tanking period” and examine half of the league to see which teams tanked and what came of those decisions.