If the NHL shrank back to 30 teams, which players would be out?

[shello]

As the title says. If the NHL went down to 30 teams, which players would no longer be in the NHL?

 

[Super Hans]

Sorting the trade forum for the "Waived" tag is a pretty good start.

 

[NeverForget06]

The worst 46 currently playing in the NHL

 

[sr edler]

Guys like Desharnais, et cetera.

 

[VeteranPresence]

Matt Rempe (permanently) in the AHL headshotting the next generation of stars:

 

[RCGP2]

Skjei

 

[nbwingsfan]

Justin Holl already isn’t an NHL quality player despite Yzermans best efforts to pretend he is, so I’ll say hin

 

[a mangy Meowth]

The worst 46 or so of them

 

[LuckyDay]

Why would the league do that? It needs 4 more teams to have a 32 teams playoff - and hopefully reduce the number games per season.

A better question then is, in groups of 22, what players not in the NHL would be signed and what expansion draft players would benefit from being moved to the top lines or just being in another environment?

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Travis Hamonic would stay

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

The majority of the Sabres' roster.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

Perry

 

[BTP]

Every body on waivers

 

[Summer Rose]

All joking aside, if for some reason the league folded two teams to go back to 30, we'd probably see aging veterans be pushed into retirement slightly earlier than they are now.

 

[The Pale King]

Depends which two teams are being removed. Contraction draft would be fun, for novelty as much as anything else.

 

[Rec T]

The NHL is actively looking at expanding (& getting that sweet, sweet new franchise fee payment/s) & you think that they're going to contract? Yeah, that's not happening anytime soon.

That said, every team could find a player or two to cut in order to redistribute the players from the teams that suddenly were no more (although the NHLPA would be having all sorts of conniption fits over the whole thing)

 

[Oddbob]

Honestly, about the equivalent of 1-3 players from most teams 4th lines and 3rd pair D. 1-2 goalies.

 

[bobbyking]

Toronto, it's obvious every year which team is not winning the cup

 

[CaptainShark]

Barclay Goodrow... He should be out the way it is now.

 

[Barrie22]

Goodrow, kunin, thrun, Georgiev, vlasic, Dellandrea. Basically half of the sharks team.