Ways I’d Change the NHL: Off the Ice
4 years ago
With the NHL currently on hiatus, and it appears as though it will be staying that way for a while, I figured now would be a great time to look at some interesting ways that the NHL could change and in my opinion, improve.
Some of them are mild, some are wild, and some are straight-up weird, but what else are we going to talk about over the next few weeks?
To make sure I get the most out of this, I’m going to break this up into three parts. This is part two and it will focus on ideas that the NHL could change off the ice. Part one was focused on the on-ice product and can be read HERE. Part three will feature some more cosmetic ideas for the league. It’ll be fun and I hope you enjoy my ideas and if you don’t, well that’s what the comment section is for! LET’S DEBATE!
SALARY CAP EXCEPTION
This one is probably my most radical idea in this article, but hear me out. I like that the NHL salary cap has created a high level of parity across the league. It doesn’t matter if you’re a big or small market, you have a chance to get good players and create a Stanley Cup calibre team. At the same time, I wouldn’t mind a system where big markets and rich teams have a slight advantage.
I don’t think you can fully scrap the salary cap and honestly, that would be a terrible idea, but I do think that star players in the NHL shouldn’t be pressured to take less than they’re worth to organizations. So here’s my idea: each NHL team gets one contract that doesn’t count against the salary cap.
There would have to be some rules surrounding it, but this would allow rich teams to more easily attract star players and also give them a little more financial flexibility. Here’s what I’m thinking for guidelines:
- A player’s cap hit can only be exempted for three consecutive seasons during the course of his contract. Example: if McDavid signs an eight-year-deal, his cap hit can only be exempt for one three-season span during the deal. This would likely lead to more star players signing short term deals which would lead to more intrigue around the free agency period.
- Some players would still be signed to long-term deals. For example, the Oilers could go long-term with both McDavid and Draisaitl with the knowledge that they could exempt McDavid for three years and then Draisaitl for three years.
- This would also allow star players to earn more money since some teams would be able to flex their financial muscles a little bit more.
It’s not a perfect idea but I think it’s a good outline of something that could work. There would have to be tweaking done to it, but I would love to see the NHL add in an exempted contract.
CHANGING THE DRAFT AGE
I’ve actually recently devoted an entire article to this because I think it’s a really good idea. You can read it HERE. I think that the Draft would be more entertaining if every year 12-15 first-round picks could end up cracking their big clubs and the rest of the high-end prospects ended up sticking around the organization and could spend the season in the AHL.
It would change teams strategies when making their picks and also give them an extra season to watch players develop before committing to them. It could lead to more players jumping to the NHL the same year they’re drafted while also potentially cutting down on first-round busts.
By having players drafted out of the CHL eligible to go right into the AHL, you could also create more of a developmental league that has more prospects in it. I think this idea would greatly benefit the NHL.
WILD CARD PLAY-IN SERIES
I simply want to see the 9 seed in each conference play the 8 seed in a best of three series with the winner getting the final playoff spot in their conference. MLB did this with its Wild Card Game and the results have been pretty positive. It gets the playoffs going with a bang and I think the NHL could capitalize on this as well, with a bit of a change.
Instead of just a one-game series like baseball has, I’m proposing a best of three series with all three games played in the higher seeds arena, giving the team with the better regular-season a distinct advantage in this series. You could play it over the course of four days with games two and three being on back-to-back nights, which would create some interesting storylines as well.
This would really set the tone for the playoffs and would also reward the higher seeds in the league by giving them an extra few days of rest. It would add more value to finishing first in the conference as well since that team’s first-round opponent would be coming off potentially playing three games in four nights while the top seed would have had an extra six days off.
Imagine the storylines that could be created from this. Watching a nine seed in a conference win the wild card round and then go on a long playoff run would be both wildly entertaining and good for the league.
Hate my ideas? Have your own? Let’s debate in the comment section!
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