One of the things I like to do in my columns is to throw a new idea out into the world. Helpful suggestions, if you will. Sometimes, it’s because I really think I have a genuinely better way of doing things. Other times, I’m trying to make a larger point.

Not today. I’m under no illusions that today’s suggestion would ever happen, because I acknowledge that on a certain level, it’s just silly. It has zero chance of becoming reality, and even writing about it is a total waste of my time and yours.

Also, it’s completely brilliant. Stay with me.

While I wish I could claim all the credit here, that honor goes to reader Drew, who sent me an outline of the idea. It’s a topic that’s I’ve railed about before: The draft order, how best to determine it, and the related issues of tanking and fan bases checking out on the season. As it stands now, we encourage bad teams to lose as much as possible, assign some odds based on the final standings, and then let a barrel full of ping-pong balls sort it out. Surely, there has to be a better way.

By now, you know my view on that one. I’m a big fan of the Gold Plan, the idea that we should determine draft order based on how many points a team earns after being eliminated from the playoffs. It’s a great system, one that gives an advantage to the worst teams while still forcing them to win their way to the top pick and giving their fans a reason to cheer them on and stay engaged. Yes, there are objections, and no, none of them are especially convincing, a case I make here. The Gold Plan rules.

But there are other options. We could scrap the draft entirely. We could go to some sort of auction-based system. We could keep the lottery but change how it works, maybe by flattening the odds so three or five or all of the non-playoff teams (or even all the teams period) have the same shot at the top pick. Maybe you flip the script and give the better picks to the best non-playoff teams, instead of the worst. Maybe we steal the NBA’s idea for The Wheel that they considered but never implemented. Or maybe we even make all the bad teams stick around to compete in a postseason tournament for the top pick, and hope against hope that the exhausted players would actually try. (They wouldn’t)

All solid enough ideas, each with pros and cons. And all of them at least a tiny bit realistic. Today’s idea probably isn’t realistic. It’s also awesome. Let’s get into it.

The idea

Here are the key details:

We’re keeping the current system that gives the worst teams the best odds at the top pick, without guaranteeing it. But we’re scrapping the lottery. Not changing it, or tweaking it. It’s gone. No more ping-pong balls.

On the surface, that doesn’t make sense. If there’s no lottery, how do we decide which bad team gets the coveted No. 1 pick?

Simple: By pairing each bad team with one of the good teams that made the postseason. If the playoff team that you’re paired with wins the Stanley Cup, you win too, because you get the first pick.