Assuming the NHL expands to 36 teams, what will schedule look like?

[PistolPete]

It seems to be a given that the NHL will expand to 36 teams, so how do people see the structure and schedule?

4 divisions of 9? 6 divisions of 6? 12 divisions of 3?

And will they be able to ensure all teams play each other at least twice? That would account for 70 games right there. If they had a division of 6 it'd add another 10 games but then they only have 80 and need to come up with something for the other 2 games.

And the playoffs- they stick to 16? Go with a play in? Or revert to the 70s and grant a bye for the higher seeded team while allowing 24 teams in?

Or maybe they go completely crazy and revert to the 80s and allow 32 of 36 teams, add a whole other round of best of 3? best of 5? Sports leagues are all about making as much money as possible after all.

 

[DEANYOUNGBLOOD17]

Let’s expand to 40 teams!

Play everybody twice home and away and your two closest ( distance wise) and you have your 82 game season

Get rid of divisions and simply do 1 play 16 .

Or

20 teams make the playoffs 50% cutoff …..

1 st round is best of 5 between 8 teams13-20 to get down to 16 playoff teams …. Teams 1-12 get a 1 week break b4 their playoffs start.

Best of 5 is 2 games back to back Saturday /Sunday one day travel then another back to back Tuesday/ Wednesday… one day travel then game 5 on Thursday if necessary …… Regular 16 team play offs start on Saturday after 1 week preliminary play ins.

Playoffs are the best …. Regular season sucks!

 

[M2Beezy]

So does each division get another team?

Pacific - Phoenix
Central - Houston
Metro - Hartford
Atlantic - Wilmington

 

[CTHabsfan]

Let’s expand to 40 teams!

Play everybody twice home and away and your two closest ( distance wise) and you have your 82 game season

Get rid of divisions and simply do 1 play 16 .

Or

20 teams make the playoffs 50% cutoff …..

1 st round is best of 5 between 8 teams13-20 to get down to 16 playoff teams …. Teams 1-12 get a 1 week break b4 their playoffs start.

Best of 5 is 2 games back to back Saturday /Sunday one day travel then another back to back Tuesday/ Wednesday… one day travel then game 5 on Thursday if necessary …… Regular 16 team play offs start on Saturday after 1 week preliminary play ins.

Playoffs are the best …. Regular season sucks!

You think the regular season sucks, but you come up with a plan that kills rivalries and makes the regular season worse.

 

[CTHabsfan]

So does each division get another team?

Pacific - Phoenix
Central - Houston
Metro - Hartford
Atlantic - Wilmington

Hartford? Maybe in 20-30 years.
Wilmington? Delaware? North Carolina? Either way, no chance.

 

[PistolPete]

So does each division get another team?

Pacific - Phoenix
Central - Houston
Metro - Hartford
Atlantic - Wilmington

If the league sticks with 4 divisions, I guess so.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

36? Lets go 50 at this point. Really give nobody a shot to win. It’s all about the money for the NHL anyway.

 

[PistolPete]

36? Lets go 50 at this point. Really give nobody a shot to win. It’s all about the money for the NHL anyway.

Why not if you're them? Vast majority of current fans will just complain and lament the business side of the league and the search for the almighty dollar while handing over their money either directly via tickets, merchandise, subscriptions or indirectly via viewership or perusal of nhl.com

 

[Coach Parker]

The talent pool is already diluted so much that it would be a terrible move to go to anything beyond 32 teams.

 

[PistolPete]

The talent pool is already diluted so much that it would be a terrible move to go to anything beyond 32 teams.

The league doesn't care about that. Rhat has always been the argument against expansion and yet here we are at 32 teams from 6.

And really, if you had a league of truly talented, highly skilled players, it'd probably be a league of 4 teams

 

[HockeyVirus]

I just know we are going to start seeing "unbreakable" records being broken. Expanding to 36 teams + 84 game schedules is nasty. We don't have enough talent as is. 30/36 teams in the league will have a 4th line that was an AHL top line 15 years ago

 

[PistolPete]

I just know we are going to start seeing "unbreakable" records being broken. Expanding to 36 teams + 84 game schedules is nasty. We don't have enough talent as is. 30/36 teams in the league will have a 4th line that was an AHL top line 15 years ago

There are top lines ans top pairings today that would have been AHL players 35 years ago, and especially 58 years ago.

 

[HockeyVirus]

There are top lines ans top pairings today that would have been AHL players 35 years ago, and especially 58 years ago.

There are two interpretations. Yours that literally there were not enough jobs for the current players and being literal. Mine where there is a balance of having spots for all of the world talent in your league and we are watering down the product.

I think at 36 teams / 84 games we are watering it down badly. Everything is going to also take way more time. Rebuilds will take years longer because more teams will be bad which is more competition for top picks. Cups become even more improbable. If you are hoping to see your team either win their first cup ever or win the first in your adult life your chances go way down of seeing it happen from what they are.

Scoring is going to sky rocket.

 

[OG Eberle]

Not the biggest football/soccer fan, but the one thing I love about their sport is relegation.

If hockey was more popular and there was a bit more of a standard set for AHL arenas, relegation would be SUPER fun and interesting for this sport.

I know it couldn't work as everything stands with AHL teams being linked to NHL teams. But could you imagine hockey bro culture reaction to being relegated to the AHL if tanking in the NHL?

 

[GrumpyKoala]

So does each division get another team?

Pacific - Phoenix
Central - Houston
Metro - Hartford
Atlantic - Wilmington

Wilmington????
Common...

 

[GrumpyKoala]

I just know we are going to start seeing "unbreakable" records being broken. Expanding to 36 teams + 84 game schedules is nasty. We don't have enough talent as is. 30/36 teams in the league will have a 4th line that was an AHL top line 15 years ago

We have teams in the second round that don't even have a real starter goalie.

 

[GKJ]

So does each division get another team?

Pacific - Phoenix
Central - Houston
Metro - Hartford
Atlantic - Wilmington

Wilmington?

 

[Bombshell11]

Make it 108 teams and 3 divisions with relegation and promotions.

Run 2 tournaments? League title (president trophy)
Stanley cup, all 108 teams participate, best out of 3 games all the way to the quarter finals where it becomes best out of 7 again and the quarters start after the season ends

Gives the chance for everyone to compete for it.
Market cap limits are removed.

Will never happen because NA corportations are too powerful

 

[Suntouchable13]

MLB is at 30, NBA is at 30, why is the NHL expanding to 36? What a bush league.

 

[PistolPete]

MLB is at 30, NBA is at 30, why is the NHL expanding to 36? What a bush league.

Those leagues are expanding too

And likely all of them to 36

Nature of the business- keep adding franchises

 

[robertmac43]

MLB is at 30, NBA is at 30, why is the NHL expanding to 36? What a bush league.

The other leagues will follow suit at some point.

 

[Hoek]

MLB is at 30, NBA is at 30, why is the NHL expanding to 36? What a bush league.

Not that I agree with going to 36, but there is an argument that NHL has the most Canadian teams so it'd still be an equal amount of U.S. teams with 36 total.

 

[majormajor]

The talent pool is already diluted so much that it would be a terrible move to go to anything beyond 32 teams.

There are top lines ans top pairings today that would have been AHL players 35 years ago, and especially 58 years ago.

When is the last time you watched games from fifty years ago? This second comment is so out of touch with reality that I don't know where to begin.

This game has a large proportion of the best Canadian-born players in the world playing in it:



Yet Guy Lafleur and a few others aside, almost everyone has sub NHL standard skating. Very basic edgework. The puck skills are limited. Back then it was a wow moment when a guy roofed it on the backhand. There are AHL players today who are better than some of the players in this 1977 cup final.

The best talent related argument against expansion is not that the talent per team is worse than it used to be (it's better), the best argument is that we want to watch the top 20-30 most talented players in the world play when it really matters. We want to see them in big games, a thrill we only really got to see at the 4 Nations. Most of the best players are not in the Cup Finals are even deep in the playoffs. As we go beyond 32 teams you will see more and more of the best disappear before we get deep in the playoffs, and that's just less compelling to watch.

 

[majormajor]

Houston - Central
Austin - Central (Utah pops out to the Pacific)
Toronto 2 - Atlantic
Toronto 3 - Atlantic (two Florida clubs join Metro, Columbus pops up to Atlantic)

Would they actual add teams in Toronto? Probably not, the financial case has long been overwhelming and they haven't done it. But there aren't other viable markets in the East to make this work, maybe QC.

 

[jkrdevil]

The talent pool is already diluted so much that it would be a terrible move to go to anything beyond 32 teams.

More talent dilution = more goals.