Pittsburgh Penguins Landed Crosby in 2005 NHL Draft
Published on July 13th, 2024 1:28 pm ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
On July 22nd, 2005, the NHL and NHLPA finally ratified their new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) after losing the entire previous season due to a lockout.
The NHL, which wanted to quickly turn the page on the season-long cancellation, held the draft lottery on the same day that the new CBA was ratified.
This was a massive draft for the teams involved - you had two year's worth of players to draft, and not just, plus there was a generational prospect up for grabs - Sidney Crosby.
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The NHL had an interesting problem on their hands heading into the lottery - how would they decide which teams had the best odds to win the first overall pick? After all, the previous season had been cancelled.
In order to be as fair as possible, the NHL and NHLPA devised a system in which the last 3-4 seasons were considered when it came to lottery weighting. The lottery odds ended up being weighted via playoff appearances over the previous three seasons, as well as first overall picks over the previous four drafts.
The more balls that a team had in the lottery, the better of a chance they had of landing Sidney Crosby, who was the clear #1 prospect in the draft.
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Four teams - the Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins - had three balls in the lottery, meaning that they had a 6.3% chance of winning the opportunity to draft Sidney Crosby.
Ten more teams - including the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings - had two balls, meaning that they had a 4.2% chance of winning.
The remaining teams had one ball, meaning that they had a 2.1% chance of winning.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins were one of the reasons why the NHL wiped out an entire season due to a lockout in 2004.
The Penguins, along with a handful of other teams in the league, were struggling mightily, and there had been rumors that the team might be moved prior to the lockout. Teams like the Penguins needed cost certainty and just couldn't compete with deep-pocketed teams without losing buckets of money. The current system just wasn't sustainable.
Mario Lemieux was near the end of his career, and the team needed a spark heading out of the disastrous lockout.
The team got it on July 22nd, 2005, when they won the draft lottery.
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Sidney Crosby was every bit as good as the scouts said, and he quickly set out on transforming the Penguins franchise, just as Lemieux had done decades earlier.
Crosby has won three Stanley Cups with the Penguins, which brought much-needed revenues and attention back to the team. The Penguins play in a new arena, and their financial situation has stabilized greatly - largely thanks to Crosby.
The Penguins are now the 16th most valuable team in the NHL, with a valuation of roughly $1.2 billion. The team brings in nearly $50 million in operating income per year and is now a viable business.
Two decades earlier, the Penguins were looking for a new arena and threatening a possible move. The Penguins winning the draft lottery in 2005 completely turned around their fortunes, much to the chagrin of the other teams in the lottery who were hoping to land Crosby as well.