Another year, another draft. 210 players have taken the next step in their hockey journey, by being selected by a National Hockey League franchise, with dreams of one day playing in the NHL.

However, this year’s draft, not only gave us it’s fair share of surprises in regards to whom gets drafted where, but it also turned into a mini trade-deadline, with a number of goaltenders especially, changing teams and suring up the net’s of several teams.

The Edmonton Oilers did exactly what everyone expected and drafted Connor McDavid (Erie – OHL) first overall. McDavid joins Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Nail Yakupov, in what should be a dynamic top 6. That wasn’t all the Oilers action during the draft. They also sent picks 16 (Matthew Barzal,  Seattle – WHL) and 33 (Mitchell Stephens, Saginaw – OHL) to the New York Islanders, for young defensemen Griffin Reinhart, as well as trading for Eric Gryba, from the Ottawa Senators, for pick 106 (Christian Wolanin, Muskegon – USHL).  These two defensemen are joined by former New York Rangers backup goaltender, Cam Talbot, who was acquired in a trade. This helps the Oilers address some problems they had last season. Their defensive core looks a lot stronger, with Reinhart and Gryba, joining Ference, Oskar Klefblom and Darnell Nurse, with Cam Talbot competing for the starting goalie job, with Ben Scrivens.

Does this mean the Oilers are a playoff contender next season? Well, if Talbot shows his might as a starter, if the defense can stand up and if Connor McDavid proves to be the next big thing, then the Oilers could just surprise.

Dallas gave Kari Lehtonen some much needed help in net, by acquiring the rights to upcoming UFA, Antti Niemi, from the San Jose Sharks, for a 7th Round pick. If he signs, Niemi and Lehtonen become a potential one-two punch in net for the Stars. Lehtonen isn’t the kind of ‘tender who starts 65-70 games and with 2 quality goaltenders sharing the load, it takes the pressure off the other and hopefully adds those 10-15 wins that Lehtonen/backups didn’t have last season. Which only helps the Stars, if Lehtonen’s groin decides to play up again.

Ottawa has an excess of goalies, due to the late season form of Andrew Hammond and Buffalo needed a goaltender to play behind Jack Eichel and Evander Kane. Enter Robin Lehner. Lehner, along with David Legwand, were traded to the Sabres, for pick 21. The Sabres had two picks on the first round, with pick 2 being used to draft Eichel, and the second moved to grab themselves their starter for the near future. Along with Lehner, Ryan O’Reilly and Jamie McGinn were acquired from Colorado for Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, J.T. Compher and Pick 31. Colorado dump a contract they didn’t really want on their books in O’Reilly and Buffalo’s top 6 becomes that much better and younger. O’Reilly, 24, joins Evander Kane, 23, Eichel, Tyler Ennis, 25 and Matt Moulson, 31, in a forward core that could become a very potent top end for years to come.

New York compensated for trading away Cam Talbot, by acquiring Antti Raanta from Chicago. Raanta was the third string behind Corey Crawford and Scott Darling and received forward Ryan Haggerty in exchange. Eddie Lack became the new backup to Cam Ward in Carolina, after moving from Vancouver for a 2015 3rd and 2016 7th, leaving Anton Khudobin to join Anaheim’s goaltending core of Frederik Andersen and John Gibson. The Ducks only giving up spare defensemen James Wisniewski in return.

So what do these trades mean? Well, Devan Dubynk got signed by the Minnesota Wild at a cap hit of $4,333,333 a season for six years, it leaves the best UFA Goalie as Karri Ramo, with Braden Holtby (Washington), Jake Allen (St. Louis) and Jonathan Bernier (Toronto) as the best RFAs, and for a franchise like the San Jose Sharks, this doesn’t leave many options. After trading away the rights to Antti Niemi, this only leaves them with Alex Stalock as a possible starter, with Troy Grosenick as backup. Will this mean, that they make a big money offer at an RFA, or do they make a trade for someone like a John Gibson at Anaheim, who looks like becoming the number three? Only time will tell.

Can you hear that Hockey fans? That’s the sound of tanks rolling through the National Hockey League. As I type, a tank is leaving Buffalo, NY, and heading on it’s way to Florida and the number one pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. Even though there are tanks departing Edmonton, Arizona, Toronto and North Carolina, it seems that the Tim Murray driven tank, will beat everyone to the greatest odds in the draft lottery. The prize of winning the draft lottery you ask? It’s only the kid scheduled to be the next prodigy, the Erie Otters’ Connor McDavid.

But with all these tanks rolling through the NHL, there comes a price. Credibility. During a game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Arizona Coyotes, Sabres fans cheered Coyotes goals, and when Arizona won the game 4-3, Sabres fans cheered again, knowing that that loss, would get them one step closer to winning the McEichel sweepstakes (McEichel being a combination of McDavid, and Jack Eichel of the University of Boston, competing in the NCAA.)

Fans are cheering for their own teams to lose, as it means that their franchises are closer toward winning the number one pick. This isn’t good for anyone. No fan really wants their team to lose. The players definitely don’t want to lose. So why are the fans cheering losses and booing wins?

By losing now, and potentially drafting a prodigy, losing now will lead them to becoming Stanley Cup contenders. This may not be the best look for the National Hockey League, but as it stands, General Managers are allowed to do whatever they please, in terms of transactions. Meaning that, if your goaltender starts to win some games, they can and will be traded for a goaltender that can’t.

But how can Gary Bettman and the NHL stop the tanks from rolling on through? If infact they even want them to stop? Surely nobody likes seeing franchises seemingly wanting to lose, just to get a higher draft pick? They could always handout fines, suspensions, or loss of draft picks/points, but how can you judge that a franchise is tanking and not just terrible? We may be throwing around the word tanking, but that doesn’t mean franchises are. The players are trying to win, The GMs might not be, but the players on the ice are trying to win every game. So, what can you do to stop the tanks from rolling, besides having a man stand in front of them in a shape?

Nothing. Zip. Nada. Not a damn thing.

There isn’t a relegation situation like in the world game, where a team can be demoted to a lower division, losing all the benefits of being in the higher division. Nor is there a rule in place, where franchises lose money off their salary caps, or receive a draft pick penalty, similar to the ten-place grid penalty in Formula One.

You could scramble the draft lottery, allowing for all non-playoff teams to have an equal chance of winning the number one pick. You could allow all 30 franchises to have a chance, but this may lead to the better teams getting better, and the lesser teams getting worse.

Picking when a team is actually tanking is hard for anyone, that includes Gary Bettman. It may look like these teams are tanking, but unless the players on the ice just give up and stop like Ovechkin’s back-check, or the starting goaltender is M.T. Net, then I’m afraid you can’t tell when a team is tanking, even if the tanks are lined up on the Florida border.

You can follow me on Twitter if you like, it’s @ThatDamnDoubleC. Or you can e-mail me at thatdamndoublec@hotmail.com.

Tank Racer is a PC and Playstation game, copyrighted by Simis, Glass Ghost and Groiler Interactive.