How about the Suck It Up That Another Team Finished Behind You and gets the Shiny New Toy! Plan?I don't think they made out as well as it appears. I think what the NHL did was actually really clever. See, in the normal course of events, Montreal would have had a 6% shot in the lottery and Chicago would have had 5%. By being in the play-in round, they lose those odds. Instead, if any of the lottery balls falls with the play-in teams, both Montreal and Chicago (assuming they lose) get the same odds as everyone else (12.5%). This works out to an approximately 3.1% chance of either team winning the lottery if one slot is available to the play in teams. So both team's odds of getting a top 3 pick has actually gone down in this scenario.
I think that's actually really fair because it balances out the benefit they get with a shot at the playoffs. Meanwhile, for teams like Pittsburgh, they'll go from not even in the lottery to a (potentially) 3.1% chance if they lose, which is at least some consolation for their fans.
If the goal is to prevent tanking at any cost, then sure, the system works. It would also "work" if you just completely randomized the draft from top to bottom. At the end of the day, the system still rewards teams for being bad, plus it adds in some random punishment & reward for teams that don't deserve it. And if another McDavid came up with a nice consolation prize like Eichel behind him, I think you'd still see tanking.
If they really wanted to use a system that prevents tanking but without the random punsihment/reward they should use the Gold plan.
If you're not familiar with it, it's very simple: draft seeding is based on points accumulated by teams from the point they are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs onward. So the worst teams would have the most games to earn points, but in theory would have the hardest time doing so, especially if they tank.
Won one Lotto in 2013 and got MacKinnon, figure it will only happen once every 32 years we're coming out ahead. Philly saved us from Nolan Patrick in 2017 so losing there looks like it worked out for the best.