I think any changes to the lottery system which will encourage teams to bottom out is a dumb change.

Past drafts will not affect the 2 in 5 rule. The only rule that would come into effect this season if they are pushed through would be that teams can only drop 2 spots and not 3, which obviously benefits the Senators.

i think when they say win the lottery I hope they mean you can't move up into the top 3 more than twice in the 5 year span, if you already have a pick in the top 3 im not sure if it counts as winning (no idea though). but if it does thats a stupid change. Like if the sens end up finishing 4th last, id be cheering for them to not get a higher pick in the draft this year because we want a chance at shane wright next year? like to me thats dumb. maybe i just have no idea whats going on which is also likely

Stevie Y in Detroit is spearheading these changes, so i don't think he would encourage the Red Wings to bottom out.

But essentially:

A. The 1st and 2nd overall picks will go to a lottery instead of the 3rd overall.

B. You can't jump more than 10 spots.

C. You can't win the lottery more than twice within a five year period.

Ottawa didn't win the lottery, San Jose did. It's an unfortunate distinction for the Sharks, but a great one for Ottawa. It works the same way for their traded pick to Colorado - the Sens lost the lottery that year. This would be wonderful news for the Sens, since they have won 0 lotteries (Tkachuk at 4, Byram at 4, Sanderson at 5).

Regardless though, the planned rules don't go into effect until 2022, so the previous wins would not come into play. The Sens could win this year and then still win Wright and not be disqualified from the following year. They're in a good position.

Sens are currently 2nd from the bottom in pts %, so if that holds, I think the worst they can draft is 4th. Only two spots means only two teams could jump them, and the ten spot limits means only 10 of the 13 non playoff teams behind them can jump ahead, as well as Seattle.

Overall it's slightly better this year, as under the old system the 2nd worst team could have fallen as far as 6th (three lower teams win the lottery, and Seattle is guaranteed to be 5th at worst). As it stands they can't do worse than 4th, assuming they finish the same in the standings.

Looking past this year, as Seattle changes things slightly, the changes will slightly benefit the bottom three teams and slightly hurt the other non playoff teams. Which is how it should be imo.

The way that some people are breaking this down is a little confusing so hopefully this can provide a little clarity. The lottery would no longer be for 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Instead there will be two lotteries with the chance to move up a maximum of ten places. So if a team that was originally going to pick 14th wins the lottery, they would move up to 4th. The other side to that is if a team finishes 8th they would move to first or second depending on which lottery they are winning as I'm sure there will be a distinction between the two.

For Ottawa, or any other team in the basement, this means that you could still secure a top 2 pick without winning the lottery.

I think you have it backwards.
He wants the rule changes because he is already bottoming out.

This is not a 'better for league' move.
It suits his club.
Once Red Wings turn corner, he will be just as much against rule changes as any team looking at picks 4-16.

After going back and reading the tweets from Chris Johnston and Elliotte Friedman, their reporting on the matter is either somewhat confusing or leaves out key details that give a better glimpse of the situation.

I guess they have busier lives than we do and they're just tweeting on the fly

I think it’s a dumb time to be tampering with a system that isn’t perfect but is fine for now. Let the league get back to normal before causing a complicated mess for average fans to understand.