Re-Rigging The Leagues
Mike Leitao ~ 05/21/2025
You know I was planning on letting it go. Was going to take a couple weeks to relax and let off some steam. But two weeks later my opinion is still the same and I’m still just as annoyed about it. Once again, pro sports have proved they are rigged. The first article I ever wrote for this beautiful magazine was about the NHL and NBA playoffs being clearly rigged as they were mirror matches of each other. Star players looking for their first ring down 3-0 against the agreed upon juggernauts of their respective leagues, blah blah blah, go read that article if you care. Roughly 11 months later, those two leagues go on and pull off the exact same bullshit in their respective draft lotteries.
Starting with the NBA since I care much less about it, so therefore I have less opinion and less basis to use. After the Mavericks traded their superstar player in Luka to the Lakers for an underwhelming return that led to a nonstop barrage of criticism and memes. Fast forward to the lottery and the Mavericks move all the way to first overall and the opportunity to draft NCAA superstar Cooper Flagg. Now this isn’t a situation where the team moved from pick 4 to pick 1 or something, this was a team in the play-in tournament, a.k.a. a team that was a win away from being in the playoffs and now gets to draft a generational talent. This is not the first time something like this has happened in the league, the Pelicans traded Anthony Davis in 2019 and then winded up with the first overall pick and the right to draft projected superstar Zion. Ironically, both of these situations involved trading AD, though on this team he actually gets the benefit. I’m sure there is more to this particular lottery that could be explored, but I simply don’t care about the NBA enough.
In the NHL, the lottery is for the top two picks compared to the NBA where it is the top 4 picks. This should make it so the even wonky draft lotteries don’t fully screw over teams that much. Plus with the odds even with rarities teams shouldn’t expect to move back in the draft more than one spot. Another rule in the NHL is that you can only move up 10 pick spots meaning the teams picking 12 and later couldn’t even move up to pick 1 if they won the lottery. Those items combined with the super low percentages means that the draft lottery in the NHL might throw us a random surprise or something but nothing crazy. But nope. This year, the Islanders moved up from 11 to 1 and Utah moved from 14 to 4. This moved back many teams multiple spots in the draft. This was also so clearly rigged it’s not even funny. Let’s start with Utah since it is the less obvious one. Just because something with low odds actually happens doesn’t mean it’s 100% rigged. But when you take a step back it doesn’t look great. The NHL’s newest franchise, having just moved from Arizona after an incredibly disappointing run of hockey in the desert, now has the opportunity to try and make hockey work in Utah. The team is ok, not good but not bad. The type of team stuck in a purgatory where they are not good enough to be contenders for the championship but not bad enough to get high picks to build a roster. Utah is also not a super hot destination for free agents so hard to build a roster that way. Add in the fact that this isn’t a new franchise, this is a franchise that had to move due to failures elsewhere and it’s pretty easy to see that the NHL wanted and needed this team to be somewhat successful and fast. What’s the easiest way to do that? Have them win the lottery to move up to the top 5. Now instead of getting a middle round player who hopefully becomes a decent but not superstar caliber player you have the chance to draft a legitimate game changer. Add in that shortly after they finally announced their official name and all of the sudden hockey in Utah seems much more interesting than it did a mere season ago.
So Utah has some solid evidence to support, but the Islanders’ situation is so fishy it feels harder to call it real than it does an inside job. The Islanders are also in purgatory, though they are moving themselves more into the bad rebuild phase now. The issue is that they were mediocre for so long and gave out some bad contracts that this team has absolutely nothing. One of the worst pipelines in the league, a minor league team that just had one of the worst records of all time, and no real game changers on their current team other than their goalie which even then isn’t a lock with how goalies play. All of that is true, but doesn’t mean they would be favored by the league. I mean there are a bunch of teams in very similar boats, so why would the league choose the Islanders? That’s because the Islanders are a depressing franchise. They don’t have much going for them. Years of poor management have led to a product that offers no current joy and no hope meaning people don’t want to watch and pay for this team. One of the only pieces of hope they had was the Islanders were selected to host the 2026 all-star game. This might not seem like much but for a dying franchise like the Islanders it’s huge. From a business standpoint, it brings in a lot of revenue which is great, but it also allows the Islanders to show out in front of the whole fan base of the NHL which helps raise their reputation which could also help bring in future free agents. But, the NHL decided that an all-star game right before the Olympics was dumb and decided to cancel the all-star game and replace it with an Olympic preview. This won’t be a game, it’s a small ceremony that means nothing. The Islanders were upset and the governor even wrote a letter stating their disappointment with this decision. A hopeless franchise just saw one of their only bright spots disappear. So how does the NHL make up for it? They give the first overall pick to the Islanders, moving up 10 spots and similarly to Utah, allowing the franchise to instantly get a player who should put asses in seats and make the team more competitive and fun to watch. If you ask me, that’s a great trade that I think most teams would make.
The fact that this is the second time an article has been written pointing out rigging in the league and it’s the same leagues doing similar shit is crazy. Do better NHL and NBA, at least don't do it two years in a row or make it slightly different to throw us off the scent.
