Bruins Beat: The Oilers Rule

So this post will be a little more off topic than the others as it will have nothing to do with the Bruins, at least not for the foreseeable future. In my post a week back or so I discussed how the coach's challenge was becoming an integral part of the game, and with every new aspect of the game comes scrutiny and cry's for it to be reviewed and possibly removed form the game. One place where these talks and complaints come to a forefront is when the owners of all 30 teams come together and meet to discuss the current state of the game and what they believe they should bring to the commissioner as items that should be implemented, changed or removed.
Now although the coach's challenge will undoubtedly be on the agenda when the owners meet, one of the more surprising actions to have come to light in the past few days is the fact that many of the owners have banded together and expressed curiosity in creating a rule that would not allow a team to win the entry draft lottery more than one or two years in a row. To quickly explain, at the end of the season all teams that did not make the playoffs are entered into a lottery to see who will draft first overall, second overall and third overall in that years entry draft. The teams who finished with worse records overall have a significantly higher chance to win the lottery and draft in one of those positions which usually guarantees an NHL caliber and sometimes even franchise type player for that team. One small problem with this system is that one team has completely dominated the NHL entry draft for the past 6 or 7 seasons, the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers have been the NHL's punching bag for the better part of a decade, finishing with terrible records and seemingly unable to ice a competitive team. Here in lies the problem however as this run of mediocrity has net the Oilers 4 first overall picks and 8 picks in the top ten in the past 10 seasons. The owners are obviously becoming quickly fed up with this as even though the Oilers have had a constant stream of young and sensational talent come through their system they are still one of the worst teams in the league to date and look to have another strong opportunity to win the first overall pick for the 5th time. The strongest leg the other owners have to stand on in this proposal is that if the Oilers are seemingly not serious about icing a quality team with the amount of talent that has been handed to them, why do they deserve to have another fine player shipped off to Edmonton and waste the best years of his career in a mediocre purgatory of a team. I for one am all for this rule as I am sick and tired of the Oilers cleaning up at the draft only to do nothing the following year. Hopefully a majority of the owners and the league see it the same way and some other teams may have a chance to inherit a generational talent that they desperately need (I'm looking at you Carolina).