It wasn’t a 1:40 chance of happening. The combined odds of the best-worst teams, the teams that lose in the playin round were better than Detroit or Ottawa. That doesn’t make any sense at all. So there was always better odds that one of the placeholder teams would be in the top 3.
There was absolutely no reason to hold the lottery now, before the season begun. There was no reason to give eight teams who barely miss the playoffs better odds than Ottawa and Detroit.
The draft is meant to give bad teams an attempt to get better, not allow Toronto, Edmonton or Pittsburgh to get a star player on their ELC while Detroit struggles to ice an NHL team.
Of all of the teams since the 2005 lockout, Detroit has made the most concessions without really getting anything from the league. Had to cut their salary by more than half, got punished for legal, league approved contracts, and now after decades of success and being a money machine for the league, they’re being kicked when they’re down because Edmonton is a horrible franchise.
If the league cared about parity and fairness they would scrap the ELC contract or make rookie bonuses much higher. Lafreniere could easily come into the league and score 80 points on a good team all while making less than $3.5 mill with maxed out bonuses. Make teams pay what young players are worth and make them trade other talented players away to fit the new ones under the cap.