REPORT: NHL Players purposely trying to sabotage their teams chances at 1st overall pick

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Ryan
January 29, 2023 (7:07 PM)

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All players want to play for a winning organization, as a competitor you are not a fan of losing. We all know that the best way to build a winning team is through the draft. All of the teams who have won the Stanley Cup currently built the core of their team through drafting. While they may have made some trades to bring in some additional assets, the core of their team is all from drafting.

Getting the first overall pick is usually the best way to start a rebuild. We've seen in the past a few teams with later picks get the better player, like in Colorado's case with Cale Makar, but it's not very often you see the franchise player like Connor McDavid drafted not first overall.

This upcoming year we have a possible franchise player in the making projected to go first overall in Connor Bedard, and rebuilding teams are desperate to try and win the draft to get this player in their organization.

A few favourites to land him are the Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Blackhawks who went into full rebuild this offseason.

It doesn't sound like all the players on the Blackhawks are onboard with this idea of tanking to bring in Bedard though, even if it means getting the best player in the draft.

Mark Lazerus of The Athletic interviewed some of the Blackhawks players and they are not onboard with losing games to get that first overall pick:

Seth Jones had this to say about managements plans of losing games:

"That's why we play the game, right? We're trying to win every game we play. We've got to control what we can control in here, and obviously the front office, they control that."

Another Blackhawks player Mackenzie Entwhistle also had this to say:

No, no, definitely not. Your goal is to win the Stanley Cup. Where we pick and stuff, that's something that we can't control. Every single guy in here doesn't want to lose. If you get the first-overall pick, chances are you lost and you had a pretty bad year. So every guy in this room wants to win. The higher we place, the better for us.

Check out the full article here:

"If you get the first-overall pick, chances are you lost and you had a pretty bad year. So every guy in this room wants to win. The higher we place, the better for us."

The Blackhawks are actively trying to screw up the tank. And they're enjoying it, too.https://t.co/vnxvjDfANi� Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 29, 2023