Decentralized draft a one year experience?

[LadyStanley]

32 Thoughts: Montreal electrified by stud prospect Ivan Demidov

In this week's notes, Elliotte Friedman shares stories and memories about Greg Millen, plus the excitement around Ivan Demidov in Montreal, the playoffs in Winnipeg, and much more.

www.sportsnet.ca

With the de-centralized draft looking more and more like a one-year wonder (thank God), there was a suggestion made during a smaller group at the GM conversations to do what baseball does with its winter meetings. That’s a four-day palooza featuring all teams, free agents and their representatives with wall-to-wall coverage. In hockey’s case, that would include awards, draft and July 1 free agency in the same city. Not sure how to handicap the likelihood, but it will be discussed. It’s a great idea. After the Sphere draft last year, Toronto was one team that stayed in Vegas for free agency, so it is not such a huge leap.

Could make for a great fan experience too.

 

[rsteen]

I thought GMs didn't like how little time they had to prepare for free agency after the draft as it was.

If they would start the season early they would have more time for all of this.

 

[Brodeur]

I thought GMs didn't like how little time they had to prepare for free agency after the draft as it was.

If they would start the season early they would have more time for all of this.

They didn't like how they had to travel to the draft and then rush back to their home base in time for July 1. Friedman seems to be alluding to a few people who are suggesting that teams would travel to the draft and then stick around for a few more days for July 1 (as a few teams did in 2024/Vegas).

I don't disagree with you that I'd prefer the season to start/end earlier, but the NHL doesn't operate in a vacuum. Some markets wouldn't want the extra overlap with football.

We'll see if ESPN changes their tune now that they've dropped MLB, but they had previously requested that the NHL move back its season start since ESPN had the rights to some of the opening round MLB playoff games.

And then ESPN/ABC and TNT have the NHL and NBA at the moment. Nowadays both leagues work together so that they don't step on each other's toes.

2010 Chicago/Philly Game 1: 4.43 million viewers
2013 Chicago/Boston Game 1: 6.36 million viewer
2015 Chicago/Tampa Game 1: 5.55 million viewers

This seems counterintuitive since Philadelphia obviously is a strong market. But 2010 went up against an NBA Conference Final game while 2013/15 went unopposed. In other instances when this happened, SCF viewership drops about 20-25% in the US.

Understandably the TV rights holders want to maximize the number of eye balls.

 

[GKJ]

They didn't like how they had to travel to the draft and then rush back to their home base in time for July 1. Friedman seems to be alluding to a few people who are suggesting that teams would travel to the draft and then stick around for a few more days for July 1 (as a few teams did in 2024/Vegas).

I don't disagree with you that I'd prefer the season to start/end earlier, but the NHL doesn't operate in a vacuum. Some markets wouldn't want the extra overlap with football.

We'll see if ESPN changes their tune now that they've dropped MLB, but they had previously requested that the NHL move back its season start since ESPN had the rights to some of the opening round MLB playoff games.

And then ESPN/ABC and TNT have the NHL and NBA at the moment. Nowadays both leagues work together so that they don't step on each other's toes.

2010 Chicago/Philly Game 1: 4.43 million viewers
2013 Chicago/Boston Game 1: 6.36 million viewer
2015 Chicago/Tampa Game 1: 5.55 million viewers

This seems counterintuitive since Philadelphia obviously is a strong market. But 2010 went up against an NBA Conference Final game while 2013/15 went unopposed. In other instances when this happened, SCF viewership drops about 20-25% in the US.

Understandably the TV rights holders want to maximize the number of eye balls.

The strange thing is that the NHL seems dead set on keeping July 1 as the date. With everything being moved back a by a week to 10 days, gee I wonder why all the business is getting compressed. They’d all rather get to their cabins on July 2.

 

[rsteen]

The strange thing is that the NHL seems dead set on keeping July 1 as the date. With everything being moved back a by a week to 10 days, gee I wonder why all the business is getting compressed. They’d all rather get to their cabins on July 2.

It's in the CBA. The PA would have to agree to push it back and they would ask for some concession to make up for losing cottage time.

 

[GKJ]

It's in the CBA. The PA would have to agree to push it back and they would ask for some concession to make up for losing cottage time.

The concession would be that you don’t get like 20 minutes after the season ends to make decisions on your lives. If they can agree to it during work stoppages, they can push things back to July 8

 

[gstommylee]

I thought GMs didn't like how little time they had to prepare for free agency after the draft as it was.

If they would start the season early they would have more time for all of this.

its also a money issue, they believe they would save money, only realize they still have to pay for hotel costs in their own city for their team scouts and owners to be there for a few days.

 

[gstommylee]

I thought GMs didn't like how little time they had to prepare for free agency after the draft as it was.

If they would start the season early they would have more time for all of this.

Friedman is suggesting that they can do a MLB like winter meetings and have all teams stay in the city that holds the draft for a little bit longer for free agency.