Among the rarest of feats in hockey is to win an Olympic Gold Medal and the Stanley Cup in the same season. American Ken Morrow was the first to turn the trick, doing so in 1980. Since then, only eight players have added their names to this exclusive list.
The unofficially dubbed "Big Double Club" consists of three defensemen and five forwards. Of the exclusive eight, there are seven Canadians, one American, and three Triple Gold Club cardholders (Shanahan, Yzerman, Toews). No goalies or coaches have yet to crack the club. Aspiring Big Double Club members will have to wait until the Olympic Winter Games reconvene in South Korea in 2018 to rekindle their quest.
Tonight Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly presented the NHL Draft lottery results live on TSN, with the top overall pick in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, to be held on June 27th and 28th of 2014 in Philadelphia, being awarded to the floundering Florida Panthers. The actual lottery is typically conducted 30 minutes earlier at NHL Headquarters in New York City. This video from 2013, featuring NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman offers a detailed explanation of the process. Designed to guard against teams purposely losing regular season games to improve their draft position, the weighted lottery system implemented prior to the 1995 NHL Entry Draft provides weaker teams with a greater chance of a higher pick without any guarantees for poor performance.
Until 2013, only the league's five worst regular season teams were eligible for the top overall pick, allowing teams to advance up to four spots and fall only one spot in the lottery. That changed in 2013 with all non-playoff teams eligible for the top overall pick albeit with their statistical likelihood directly tied to their final regular season standing. A team can still only fall one spot in lottery position.
For the third year in a row, the top pick went to someone other than the statistical favorite with the last place Buffalo Sabres edged out by the lottery winning Panthers. The win gives Florida their second top overall pick in franchise draft history since they selected defenseman Ed Jovanovski first in the 1994 Draft.
Other than Buffalo and Florida trading places, the remaining clubs placed as predicted by their statistical probabilities. The chart below shows final draft position by team and their accompanying odds of having won first pick overall in the lottery.
Draft Position
Likelihood of 1st Pick
1. Florida
18.8%
2. Buffalo
25.0%
3. Edmonton
14.2%
4. Calgary
10.7%
5. New York*
8.1%
6. Vancouver
6.2%
7. Carolina
4.7%
8. Toronto
3.6%
9. Winnipeg
2.7%
10. Anaheim**
2.1%
30. New Jersey***
1.5%
11. Nashville
1.1%
12. Phoenix
0.8%
13. Washington
0.5%
* New York Islanders ** Anaheim received pick from Ottawa for Bobby Ryan trade *** New Jersey to pick 30th despite final standings and lottery outcome ------- owing to Ilya Kovalchuk's contract cap circumvention penalty.
Remaining NHL Entry Draft positions are set after the playoffs with the Stanley Cup champion and runner-up picking 30th and 29th, respectively. Conference finalists (28th, 27th) as well as division winners and wildcard teams (26th through 15th) are then ordered among their respective subgroup based on regular season standings, positioning teams with better regular season records to pick later than their peers.
Earlier this week 300 players were named to the 12 teams participating in the 13 day tournament to be held at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Of the 300 players set to represent their country, 150 are currently skating in the NHL.
The chart below shows all 2014 Olympic players sorted by NHL team.
Breaking it down by conference, 72 Olympic skaters play in the West (48%) with the East offering 78 (52%). By division, the Atlantic leads all others contributing 40 players, followed by the Metropolitan (38 players), Central (38 players) and Pacific (34 players).
The opening match of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games is February 12th, with the Bronze Medal tilt set for February 22nd and the Gold Medal game scheduled on February 23rd. Barring another agreement between the NHL and IIHF, this 5th Olympiad featuring NHL athletes may be the last.
With an eye towards reduced travel and pairing teams with their time zone neighbors, this season's NHL realignment has resulted in the reshuffling of teams from six divisions in to four divisions, including the disappearance of the Northeast, Southeast and Northwest, addition of the Metropolitan, and retooling of the Pacific, Central and Atlantic.
This year the most traveled team (San Jose Sharks) nearly doubles the mileage of the least traveled team (New York Rangers), with the average Western team logging 46,725 miles to the Eastern's 36,722 miles for a NHL average of 41,387 miles. Breaking it down by division, the Pacific leads all others averaging 49,988 miles, followed by the Central (43,462), Atlantic (38,864) and Metropolitan (34,580).
The chart below sorts teams by most mileage to least for 2013-14 showing their total travel for the last 82 game season (2011-12) and the differential between miles traveled before and after realignment.
SUMMARY
Team
Division
2013-14
2011-12
+/-
Sharks
Pacific
57,617
43,994
+13,623
Coyotes
Pacific
52,633
49,192
+3,441
Avalanche
Central
49,007
48,945
+62
Flames
Pacific
48,970
49,104
-134
Ducks
Pacific
48,568
50,296
-1,728
Canucks
Pacific
48,510
46,826
+1,684
Kings
Pacific
48,432
55,591
-7,159
Stars
Central
46,660
49,622
-2,962
Jets
Central
46,477
44,627
-1,850
Oilers
Pacific
45,192
50,006
-4,814
Panthers
Atlantic
45,136
52,751
-7,615
Wild
Central
44,273
42,860
+1,413
Lightning
Atlantic
43,102
43,717
-615
Bruins
Atlantic
42,389
33,770
+8,619
Predators
Central
39,810
39,534
+276
Blues
Central
39,328
38,781
+547
Canadiens
Atlantic
39,327
39,174
+152
Hurricanes
Metropolitan
38,879
38,114
+765
Blackhawks
Central
38,680
39,288
-608
Penguins
Metropolitan
37,061
33,439
+3,622
Blue Jackets
Metropolitan
36,597
42,831
-6,234
Capitals
Metropolitan
36,250
37,969
-1,719
Maple Leafs
Atlantic
35,975
32,239
-3,736
Red Wings
Atlantic
35,234
42,865
-7,631
Flyers
Metropolitan
34,929
34,193
+736
Senators
Atlantic
34,850
33,915
+935
Sabres
Atlantic
34,812
35,911
-1,099
Devils
Metropolitan
33,151
28,597
-4,554
Islanders
Metropolitan
29,933
32,410
-2,477
Rangers
Metropolitan
29,839
36,385
-6,546
Average
41,387
41,565
-178
Interestingly, NHL realignment has yielded an average savings of 178 miles per team, for a total league-wide savings of 5,340 miles. The San Jose Sharks (+13,623) and the Boston Bruins (+8,619) lead their respective conferences in terms of increased travel as against their pre-realignment 2011-12 mileage. Ten teams (1/3) have been impacted by less than 1,000 miles as compared to their 2011-12 mileage.
The NHL's new season structure calls for each team in each rink every year. Thus, the mileage savings achieved through pairing teams by proximity have been spent to afford improvements in the schedule. While most teams are now aligned with their geographic neighbors, there are still some peculiarities. Most notably, the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have been paired with six teams in the northeast under the ambiguous Metropolitan namesake.
In addition to counting clicks, Hoag's Schedule tallies each team's number of back-to-back games showing an average of 15 such occurrences per club, the New Jersey Devils (22) leading all others and the Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets playing the least (10). NHL life is indeed a highway, flying thousands of miles all season long.
Among the rarest of feats in hockey is to win an Olympic Gold Medal and the Stanley Cup in the same season. American Ken Morrow was the first to turn the trick, doing so in 1980. Since then, only eight players have added their names to this exclusive list.
