The PWHL Fixed Tanking (And Every League Should Follow)

I think we all know the feeling.

It’s late in the season… your team is bad… and suddenly they get really bad.

The lineup looks weird. The effort feels off. The broadcast starts talking about draft odds more than the actual game.

And nobody says it out loud — but everyone understands:

They’re supposed to lose.

Not the players necessarily… but the organization definitely doesn’t mind it.

We’ve accepted this as normal sports behavior. It happens in hockey, football, basketball, baseball — rebuilding is just code for strategic losing.

But then the Professional Women's Hockey League came along and basically said:

What if losing never helped you?

And somehow… they actually pulled it off.

The Problem Every League Pretends Is Fixed

Leagues have spent years trying to stop tanking.

The NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB

all use some version of a lottery or the worst team picks the first type of system.

And yeah — it helps a little.

But let’s be honest… it doesn’t stop tanking.

It just changes how you tank.

• Instead of finishing dead last, teams aim for the bottom five

• Instead of openly losing, they rest players and call it development.

•  Instead of rebuilding, they “evaluate talent.”

• 
  

Same strategy. Better PR.

Because the rule is still the same:

Bad teams get rewarded.

So organizations act logically.

• Fans hate it.

• Players hate it.

• Coaches definitely hate it.

But the system encourages it.

The PWHL Idea Is So Simple It’s Almost Annoying

Here’s their twist:

Once a team is eliminated from playoff contention…

Their games start determining draft order.

Not the losses. The wins.

The better you play after elimination — the better your draft pick.

Which means the second your season is over…

Your season actually starts.

Why This Completely Changes Everything

Think about what tanking requires:

You have to benefit from losing.

The PWHL removes that entirely.

Now if a team quits late in the year? They hurt their future.

If they compete hard? They help their rebuild.

There is literally no strategic advantage to losing anymore.

None.

So every game stays real.

And honestly… It makes the bottom teams more interesting than the playoff teams sometimes.

It Also Fixes Something Nobody Talks About

Young players on bad teams usually learn the worst lesson in sports:

This season doesn’t matter.

That destroys cultures.

You get lazy habits, quiet locker rooms, and development that stalls because winning stops being urgent.

In this system?

The youngest players are playing the most meaningful hockey of the year at the end of the season.

That’s the opposite of every major league.

Suddenly Late-Season Games Matter Again

Normally by the final month:

• Contenders rest players

• Bad teams disappear

• Fans check standings instead of watching games

• 
  

But here?

The eliminated teams are fighting for their future core player.

So instead of meaningless games in April…

You get desperate hockey.

From the worst teams.

That’s wild.

Why Bigger Leagues Haven’t Done This

Because they’re trying to engineer parity.

The PWHL is protecting competition first and letting parity happen naturally.

They didn’t tweak lottery odds. They didn’t add play-ins.

They just made sure trying is always the best strategy.

And the second you do that… tanking dies on its own.

My Take

For years leagues have been patching the problem.

The PWHL solved it.

Not with math. Not with percentages. Not with lotteries.

Just with one rule:

Winning should always help you.

And once that’s true, sports feel real again.