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Rangers’ Win Sparks Conspiracy Theories About Rigged Draft Lottery

In Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: NHL fans start conspiracy theories about the draft lottery, Kyle Kuzma gives a great quote after nailing a game-winner and more.

Dan Gartland

A tradition unlike any other

For as long as sports leagues have been holding draft lotteries, fans have been accusing them of rigging the results. The most famous example of such a conspiracy theory is the idea that the Knicks’ envelope in the 1985 lottery was frozen so that David Stern knew which one to pick out of the pile. The NHL has its own urban legend that the 2005 lottery was rigged to hand Sidney Crosby to the Penguins, a formerly proud franchise that was the subject of relocation threats. But the drawing for the 2005 lottery was conducted behind closed doors. All Gary Bettman did on TV was open some envelopes to reveal the results, so there was never any guess as to how the process had been rigged in Pittsburgh’s favor. 

This year’s NHL lottery was different, though. The ping pong balls were picked right out in the open on national TV, allowing fans to start speculating wildly when the Rangers won. 

This is the smoking gun moment. 

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Ah ha! The allegedly impartial arbiter from Ernst & Young dropped the Rangers’ ball! Therefore, it must be weighted differently from the rest!

If you search Twitter for fans accusing the league of tilting the scales in New York’s favor, you’ll find many, may results (of varying degrees of seriousness). That’s not because they all believe the fix was in for the Rangers. Accusing a league of favoring any team but yours (and especially big city teams like the Rangers) is just part of being a sports fan. 

The reason people are especially geared up to cry conspiracy in this case is that the presumptive No. 1 pick, Alexis LaFrenière, is a total slam dunk. He had 42 goals in his first season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League—as a 16-year-old—and he has 217 points in 113 games over the past two seasons. He seems like a lock to be a star in the NHL for a long time. 

Only players like LaFrenière are worthy of developing conspiracy theories about. You don’t hear anyone saying the NBA rigged the lottery in favor of the Cavs in 2013 so they could take Anthony Bennett. Conspiracy theories are ludicrous on their face, but when they involve stars like Ewing or Crosby, they become part of a player’s lore. Rangers fans should hope LaFrenière turns out to be the kind of player who warrants having speculation about a ping pong ball follow him around for the rest of his career. 

What makes this example particularly exciting from a conspiracy standpoint is the added intrigue of the Ernst & Young guy’s butterfingers. If LaFrenière lives up to the hype, you’ll be seeing clips of that moment all over whichever new social media platform we’re all using in 2038 when the Rangers hoist their third Stanley Cup. 

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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