Botta's NHL Notebook: 3 Jewels for the 2011 Draft, the League's Best D

Filed under: NHL Draft

In 2011 Draft, Three Stand Alone

There are some NHL seasons when it has been wise to be the very worst of the worst teams. There are others, like last season, when -- lottery be damned -- finishing 29th or 30th in the league had its benefits (Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin). In advance of the 2011 NHL Draft, it appears that if a struggling franchise wants to do itself and its fanbase a favor, ending up in the bottom three of the league standings is the way to go.

Ask almost any scout on makeshift press rows in European rinks and junior hockey barns across Canada, and there is a clear consensus. Teams in search of a top-shelf teenager to immediately improve their lineups will want to end up with one of the top three selections in the 2011 draft.

"I know it's early," a chief scout for a Western Conference team told NHL FanHouse. "But I really don't see the group changing. The top three now -- barring catastrophic injury -- will probably be the top three next June.

 

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