Now we know

Well, I think it's safe to say the 2005 NHL Draft Lottery, particularly the "Crosby Sweepstakes" aspect of it, had it's good and bad points. I found it much more exciting to listen to than I was expecting and I was pretty heavily disappointed when the Wings ended up with the 19th spot instead of the 1st. As Gary Bettman droned on (why couldn't they get someone else to do the reading? It sounded like Bettman was reading a list of casualties or something) and some of the bigger market teams were being eliminated (NY, LA, Chicago), I started to worry that Sidney would end up hidden away in some far corner of the NHL (like Carolina). When the final two teams ended up being Anaheim and Pittsburgh, I was a bit disappointed. Neither of the two is particularly financially stable and I'd hoped a team with more media exposure would get the top pick. However, I'm glad the Pens won because at least now Sidney will get to play with Mario Lemieux and he won't go into a complete black hole. If any one franchise truly needs a savior, it's Pittsburgh and Crosby may be the one who can pull it off, like Mario has done before. I'm not sure it does the NHL enough good but that remains to be seen. If he'd gone to Anaheim, I'd have felt like the hockey gods traded us Mike Babcock for Sidney Crosby. I don't want Babcock to already have a reason to regret coming to Detroit and I don't want a reason to regret the Wings signing him. It would have almost been too much of a coincidence. Know what I mean? As for the Wings getting the #19 pick, I'm pretty satisfied. It's the first time the Wings have had a first round pick since 2000 (Niklas Kronwall, #25) and it's the highest pick they've had since 1991 (Martin Lapointe, #10). They haven't had a pick lower than #22 since then, though they've done just fine drafting in the later rounds, finding some gems that other teams passed up. It will be nice to see the Wings have a shot at one of the higher ranked prospects for once, though I wouldn't put it past them to pick someone lesser known. They've had a lot more leisure to do scouting in the past year and perhaps they've found another player who hasn't been noticed by everyone. We'll find out next week. If you want an idea of who the Wings may select, check out Bob McKenzie's "Top 30 Draft Prospects." Below is the draft order for the first round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft: 1 Pittsburgh Penguins 2 Anaheim Mighty Ducks 3 Carolina Hurricanes 4 Minnesota Wild 5 Montreal Canadiens 6 Columbus Blue Jackets 7 Chicago Blackhawks 8 Atlanta Thrashers 9 Ottawa Senators 10 Vancouver Canucks 11 Los Angeles Kings 12 San Jose Sharks 13 Buffalo Sabres 14 Washington Capitals 15 New York Islanders 16 New York Rangers 17 Phoenix Coyotes 18 Nashville Predators 19 Detroit Red Wings 20 Philadelphia Flyers 21 Toronto Maple Leafs 22 Bostin Bruins 23 New Jersey Devils 24 St. Louis Blues 25 Edmonton Oilers 26 Calgary Flames 27 Colorado Avalanche 28 Dallas Stars 29 Florida Panthers 30 Tampa Bay Lightning The draft is structured so that teams will select in reverse order for the second round, the original order in the third, reverse in the fourth and so on. The draft will take place on July 30th in Ottawa.