Quoting: NorthernLeafsFan05
Its really not though. The worst teams in the league are the ones that get eliminated from playoff contention first. Those first few teams have a tremendous headstart on other teams. I detest the idea of having to watch ~20 games of a team that has literally zero reason to be playing
This also spreads out the excitement of the draft lottery (30 minutes even when it's dragged out as reality TV) across the entire stretch run at the end of March/early April.
Teams at the top of the standings take a much earned rest, or play for seeding, but fans of bad teams are scoreboard watching, invested in other games, just as they would if they were fighting for a playoff spot.
Anyways, take the worst team to complete a season (sorry 2019-20 Wings) in the post-lockout NHL: The 2016-17 Avalanche
Even in a very strange year, standings-wise, where the West had a large gap between the 8 playoff teams and the 6(!) non-playoff teams, so all Western teams were being eliminated unusually early, that Colorado team still picks 4th, exactly where they picked under the lottery system, even though they had a dreadful 0.219 points percentage after their elimination,
the truly awful teams get eliminated early enough to accumulate enough points to pick high in the draft anyways, and there is never an incentive for the GM to tank.
Winnipeg's 6 game winning streak to end the season after they had been eliminated, instead of actively hurting them by lowering their draft pick from 8 to 13 (after lotteries and Vegas), would have given them the first overall pick. Conversely, Vancouver's 1-8-0 performance after elimination should not have helped them move up the draft board.
2017 Draft Order, Gold System, not including Vegas or lotteries in comparisons
Winnipeg, up from 11th (12 points in 6 games)
Arizona, steady at 2nd (9 points in 10 games)
Los Angeles, up from 9th (9 points in 7 games)
Colorado, down from 1st (7 points in 16(!) games)
Dallas, up from 7th (6 points in 7 games)
Detroit, steady at 6th (5 points in 6 games)
New Jersey, down from 4th (4 points in 8 games)
Florida, steady at 8th (4 points in 5 games)
Philadelphia, up from 12th (4 points in 3 games)
Carolina, steady at 10th (3 points in 4 games)
Vancouver, down from 2nd (2 points in 9 games)
Buffalo, down from 5th (2 points in 5 games)
Tampa Bay, steady at 13th (2 points in 1 game)
Islanders, steady at 14th (2 points in 1 game)