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As the golf season rapidly approaches for our hapless Montreal Canadiens, one question comes to mind: To tank or not to tank?

The idea of losing on purpose is foreign to most professional athletes, but in recent years franchises have been known to purposefully weaken their rosters in the hopes of improving through the draft. The NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NFL’s Cleveland Browns are two prime examples of this.

The draft is not handled the same way in all pro sports, but in the NHL, the rules have been changed in the past few years to make tanking less attractive.

All the teams left outside of the NHL playoffs have a chance at the top overall pick, with the worst team having the best odds.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall picks are awarded in a weighted drawing. The remaining teams in the lottery, sorted by point total, fill out picks no. 4-15. No team can drop more than three places in the draft order.

So the worst team in the league at the end of the season has an 18 per cent chance at winning the No. 1 draft pick in the lottery.