Do NHL fans overrate the importance of 'depth'?

[coolboarder]

If you are talking about depth as in having a pre-cap superteam, certainly. But then again, depth is relative; meaning that once you have your bottom six clearly outperform their opponents' depth players, and maybe even saw off the opponent's top players, you're truly a powerhouse. Usually that happens when you have bargain contracts on your team. Sometimes that's prudent signings, but most often it is drafting well and having young players come in and contributing before getting their payday - as you say. This is what the Blackhawks and Lightning did so well. Boston had Marchand on the third line when they won, Giroux was the same when the Flyers went to the finals. But it is hard to keep replenishing when you have to shed players in order to get under the cap - but this is what the cap is all about. The Hawks did it really well for years and stayed competitive, same with the Bolts.

In some sense, depth is about having the fewest weaknesses - which is cleary a relative measure, no matter how "diluted" the league is as such.

My NHL Salary Cap Idea: Reward Home-Grown Talent
Here’s my proposal to tweak the NHL salary cap to reward teams for drafting and developing players, while keeping the free market and player movement intact:

• Cap Exemption for Drafted Players: Players you draft and keep through their UFA years get a partial cap hit exemption. The exemption depends on their draft round:
  • 1st round: 10% of their cap hit is exempt.
  • 2nd round: 20% exempt.
  • 3rd round: 30% exempt.
  • 4th round or later: 50% exempt.
  • Example: A 4th-round pick signs a $6M UFA deal. Only $3M counts against the cap, but they still earn the full $6M.
• No Exemption for Other Teams: If a drafted player signs with another team as a UFA, the full cap hit applies. This stops teams from offering crazy contracts to steal talent. Especially to a drafted college UFA that choose to sign with other teams after August 15 of year 4.
• Preventing Cap Tricks: Traded players lose the exemption, even if they return to their drafting team as UFAs. This stops teams from gaming the system.
• Why It Works:
  • Rewards teams for scouting and developing gems, especially late-round picks who become stars.
  • Lets teams keep home-grown players for their whole career, freeing up cap space to sign UFA depth players.
  • Keeps the 50-50 owner-player revenue split. Owners who want to keep players with exemptions might pay more, but that’s their choice.
  • Makes drafting a priority, not a throwaway.
  • This exemption only apply to all players that is in UFA age, not RFA which is still 100% of the cap hit to all RFA..
  • If you buy out players with exemption, all of their remaining years will be 100% buyout cap hit.

This system encourages teams to invest in their draft picks, makes them more valuable than UFAs, and still lets players get their market-value payday. It’s just an idea—what do you think?

 

[Duffy13]

If expansion happens 4 more times, and it seems like it is going to, then that's 4 backup goalies becoming starters, and everyone's 3rd and 4th line getting worse than it is now. I wouldn't' want to be that 4th expansion team, pickens be slim b'ye

 

[dgibb10]

Depth is inconsistent, unpredictable, and overrated yes.

Teams who win will retroactively have their depth viewed through a different light (because winning a cup requires you to get hot at the right time, which generally involves your depth overperforming their standard).

It all comes back to the fact that it's not fun to admit how much of NHL cups come down to luck.

 

[JFedol]

Depth is another way to say that your superstars are possibly fraudulent underperforming players when the lights get bright. Your star player obviously can't play the whole game but Imagine putting your whole faith on unconsistent, unreliable and unsustainable depth to win championships lol.

2010s-2020s Flames (decent depth), 2020s Canes, 2010s Sharks (Marleau was decent) are the perfect examples of this.

Very solid teams (except from Calgary) paired with very semi-elite if not medicore high end talent who either continuously choked or flamed out in the playoffs (ECF, WCF) because they didn't have that game breaking forward to lead them through.

If this was the NBA, there'd be so many playoffs teams be exposed because of their lackluster star power lmao.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Depth is another way to say that your superstars are possibly fraudulent underperforming players when the lights get bright. Your star player obviously can't play the whole game but Imagine putting your whole faith on unconsistent, unreliable and unsustainable depth to win championships lol.

2010s-2020s Flames (decent depth), 2020s Canes, 2010s Sharks (Marleau was decent) are the perfect examples of this.

Very solid teams (except from Calgary) paired with very semi-elite if not medicore high end talent who either continuously choked or flamed out in the playoffs (ECF, WCF) because they didn't have that game breaking forward to lead them through.

If this was the NBA, there'd be so many playoffs teams be exposed because of their lackluster star power lmao.

Having depth doesn’t mean your star players are underperforming.

 

[3074326]

Depth is not overrated. Seems insane to feel that way. Stars carry teams’ offenses, but depth separates the good teams from the great.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

It's a common refrain when the stars we love and admire fall out of the playoffs early.

'Oh, well, he/they simply didn't have the support around him to succeed. If only the bottom 6 or 4-through-6 defensemen had been better, they surely would have had the time/space necessary to overcome.'

At what point is it BS rationalization to let star players off the hook for simply failing to perform or being outperformed by the best players on the other team?

This seems flawed from the start. Depth helps win championships. You seem to be arguing that the stars must be underperforming as well in this scenario.

 

[JFedol]

Having depth doesn’t mean you’re star players are underperforming.

True, but it does take away needed blame for star players who do have a large sample size of underperforming if not choking. Almost every team is built with the mindset of having your best players be big time playoff performers, not through the reliance of 3-4 lines to get it done.

You need your star players to lead the ship forward and lead your teams to wins when the going gets tough.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

True, but it does take away needed blame for star players who do have a large sample size of underperforming if not choking. Almost every team is built with the mindset of having your best players be big time playoff performers, not through the reliance of 3-4 lines to get it done.

You need your star players to lead the ship forward and lead your teams to wins when the going gets tough.

That's kinda the point... when your stars are having an off game, depth scoring is important. It's a team sport.

 

[Regal]

In general, you need to be deep enough to not be exploited in the minutes your stars arent on the ice. But your best players being better than the other teams best players is the main contributor to winning

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

My NHL Salary Cap Idea: Reward Home-Grown Talent
Here’s my proposal to tweak the NHL salary cap to reward teams for drafting and developing players, while keeping the free market and player movement intact:

• Cap Exemption for Drafted Players: Players you draft and keep through their UFA years get a partial cap hit exemption. The exemption depends on their draft round:
  • 1st round: 10% of their cap hit is exempt.
  • 2nd round: 20% exempt.
  • 3rd round: 30% exempt.
  • 4th round or later: 50% exempt.
  • Example: A 4th-round pick signs a $6M UFA deal. Only $3M counts against the cap, but they still earn the full $6M.
• No Exemption for Other Teams: If a drafted player signs with another team as a UFA, the full cap hit applies. This stops teams from offering crazy contracts to steal talent. Especially to a drafted college UFA that choose to sign with other teams after August 15 of year 4.
• Preventing Cap Tricks: Traded players lose the exemption, even if they return to their drafting team as UFAs. This stops teams from gaming the system.
• Why It Works:
  • Rewards teams for scouting and developing gems, especially late-round picks who become stars.
  • Lets teams keep home-grown players for their whole career, freeing up cap space to sign UFA depth players.
  • Keeps the 50-50 owner-player revenue split. Owners who want to keep players with exemptions might pay more, but that’s their choice.
  • Makes drafting a priority, not a throwaway.
  • This exemption only apply to all players that is in UFA age, not RFA which is still 100% of the cap hit to all RFA..
  • If you buy out players with exemption, all of their remaining years will be 100% buyout cap hit.

This system encourages teams to invest in their draft picks, makes them more valuable than UFAs, and still lets players get their market-value payday. It’s just an idea—what do you think?

Any proposal that breaks the linkage between a 50/50 split of HRR is a non-starter.