What do you think will be the next big 'trend' in the NHL?

[WarriorofTime]

Depth over stacking the top lines

how would this look? A “hero” forward and then trading away your 2nd/3rd when you draft multiple future stars instead of paying them?

 

[DJJones]

how would this look? A “hero” forward and then trading away your 2nd/3rd when you draft multiple future stars instead of paying them?

Vegas, Seattle, Carolina, Dallas type strategy compared to say Edmonton/Toronto/Colorado.

Colorado had both when they won. Tampa always seemed to pull fantastic bottom six's out of their asses too. Those teams will always be amazing but I think there's room for more balanced teams going far.

Not saying having elite players is going to disappear or stop being important. Just that you can offset the loss of top players with good depth. Detroit for example is seen as dead in the water due to bad lottery luck. I think they'll be quite competitive in a couple years.

I thought Vegas/Seattle success was going to do it but teams haven't seemed to lean in to the strategy yet. Especially during the cap crunches. No one seemed to jump in and take advantage of it.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

To chew mouthguards. Oh, wait.

 

[Machinehead]

I'm not really sure where you're getting this. By the nature of the position, the overwhelming majority of centers have more defensive responsibility than wingers and I have not seen coaches try to change that tactic. The fact that wingers are asked to largely play to their strongside limits their ability to impact the entire ice surface to the extent that a center would. Not to mention, 8 of the top 10 in 22-23 Selke voting were centers. The year prior, it was 13 of 15. Even the future crop of Selke contenders are mostly centers – Hishier, Pettersson, Cirelli, Eriksson Ek, Matthews, etc. with the exception of Marner.

Well of course the center bias in Selke voting still very much exists.

With Bergeron out of the picture there are no centers as dominant defensively as Stone or Marner.

The defensive analytics of who are considered the top centers have absolutely caved compared to the guys who were considered the top centers years ago.

Hischier is rightfully (imo) considered the best defensive center going.

Meanwhile, this is what the Selke picture looked like ten years ago

The standard and responsibility placed on top six centers has clearly fallen off if you look beyond the voting, and I anticipate that the voting bias lags for a few more years.

This tracks with the explosion in scoring the last 2-4 years.

 

[Grulemieux]

Cooperalls

 

[wonton15]

Hyper aggressive PKs. Less and less static players and more threat of offense

 

[NYR94]

Not investing big money and term in goalies.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

Not investing big money and term in goalies.

I was going to say this. Once upon a time it was the blueprint to try to have a Roy/Brodeur/Hasek/Belfour etc type of goaltender to win the cup but in recent years the only champ to boast that type of Vezina-tier franchise altering goaltender is Tampa who not so coincidentally went back-to-back. I think Vegas did the right think with Hill in that if after another 2 years he's still playing at this level they can get him for more, but signing a long term deal is a huge risk for a goaltender. No position will rival what is happening with RBs in the NFL but the closest thing will be goalies

 

[Guttersniped]

Vegas, Seattle, Carolina, Dallas type strategy compared to say Edmonton/Toronto/Colorado.

Colorado had both when they won. Tampa always seemed to pull fantastic bottom six's out of their asses too. Those teams will always be amazing but I think there's room for more balanced teams going far.

Not saying having elite players is going to disappear or stop being important. Just that you can offset the loss of top players with good depth. Detroit for example is seen as dead in the water due to bad lottery luck. I think they'll be quite competitive in a couple years.

I thought Vegas/Seattle success was going to do it but teams haven't seemed to lean in to the strategy yet. Especially during the cap crunches. No one seemed to jump in and take advantage of it.

I don’t see how this is a “strategy”?

Dallas has scoring depth now because Wyatt Johnston (2021 DAL 1st 23rd) and Ty Dellandrea (2018 DAL 1st 13th) will still be on their ELC.

In 2021-22 and 2022-23, Hintz (2015 DAL 2nd Rd 49th) was only making 3.15m.

In 2021-22, they had scoring depth because they had Robertson (2017 DAL 2nd 39th) on a ELC.

I guess “keeping your picks and drafting productive forwards with them” can be considered a strategy, if you can pull it off.

 

[DJJones]

I don’t see how this is a “strategy”?

Dallas has scoring depth now because Wyatt Johnston (2021 DAL 1st 23rd) and Ty Dellandrea (2018 DAL 1st 13th) will still be on their ELC.

In 2021-22 and 2022-23, Hintz (2015 DAL 2nd Rd 49th) was only making 3.15m.

In 2021-22, they had scoring depth because they had Robertson (2017 DAL 2nd 39th) on a ELC.

I guess “keeping your picks and drafting productive forwards with them” can be considered a strategy, if you can pull it off.

Many ways to go about it. Go after cheap vets, use young players, go cheap on goalies.

Always sacrifices to make, a lot of teams choose their bottom six to sacrifice. I don't agree with that.

 

[VivaLasVegas]

I don’t see how this is a “strategy”?

Dallas has scoring depth now because Wyatt Johnston (2021 DAL 1st 23rd) and Ty Dellandrea (2018 DAL 1st 13th) will still be on their ELC.

In 2021-22 and 2022-23, Hintz (2015 DAL 2nd Rd 49th) was only making 3.15m.

In 2021-22, they had scoring depth because they had Robertson (2017 DAL 2nd 39th) on a ELC.

I guess “keeping your picks and drafting productive forwards with them” can be considered a strategy, if you can pull it off.

FWIW, I read his post as being about overall depth and the ability to run four solid lines instead of two good lines and two crappy lines (or McDrai and 3 crappy lines, etc.), and it would extend to defense as well as scoring. But I could be wrong.

 

[Goptor]

Big, fast defensemen.

The trend has already started the past 5 years or so but it will become more apparent when the most recent crop of defensemen are all in their prime playing years.

 

[Mike C]

Emily Kaplan

 

[Leksand]

Big, fast defensemen.

The trend has already started the past 5 years or so but it will become more apparent when the most recent crop of defensemen are all in their prime playing years.

I think this is exactly right.

And I think there’s a good chance it could extend to forwards as well. More really, really good skaters with some size with some skill but not elite more generally could turn out to be really useful and be the new big hulking players or energy players.

In parallel I think there will be some coach who finds a way to clog things up in a more modern way to effectively counter speed and skill based offense. That would then be a good fit for elite skaters with reach and strength.

Currently there is certainly a tendency towards smaller and faster teams that have skill. Skill and speed are here to stay, but I’m not convinced that extrapolating the last 5 years is the best predictor of the next 5 and beyond, and not convinced future Stanley Cup winners will have smaller average / median players. Has that even happened at all yet? I honestly don’t know, but the last five years of SC winners don’t feel exactly small, (but maybe some stat would prove me wrong).

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

I'm wondering if there's going to be an increase in using the boards geometrically for breakouts.

The consistency of the boards is different higher up than the lower foot or so.

The lower foot gives a truer bounce. I have wondered if a D will come along who can reliably beat a 2 or 3 man forecheck by basically playing pool with the puck off of the boards to his forwards.

I know puck off the boards isn't a new concept, but I wonder if we will see a revitalization in terms of how it's utilized.

 

[La Bamba]

Cheap goaltending

Not 'loyal' to players and trading them off while they have value

Trading draft picks

As I'm typing this out, I realize I'm basically describing Vegas

 

[Leksand]

Cheap goaltending

Not 'loyal' to players and trading them off while they have value

Trading draft picks

As I'm typing this out, I realize I'm basically describing Vegas

Well, when I saw the thread title I was thinking : “Whatever Vegas did lately”

I’ll add their defensive system from last year to your list (ie Cassidy’s)

 

[Mr Positive]

Not investing big money and term in goalies.

Maybe Vegas and Colorado have proven that. Still, Florida's run kind of redeemed Bobrovsky's bad deal. Tampa was a mini dynasty of sorts with a prominent goalie.

Oetinger, Shesterkin, and Hellebuyck will get big money. Probably Saros. Sorokin just got a big deal at max term. We will see if the Isles regret it

 

[RRhoads]

It's already circling the drain, but I don't see the concept of an 'energy line' or 'energy player' surviving much longer.

If you can't score, you can't defend, you can't impact goal differential in any meaningful way, teams aren't going to care how eager you are to hit people for the sake of it.

It will stay because of the salary cap. These players usually excel at PK and they are cheap to keep around.

 

[TheOne]

Jersey ads. NHL has now got a taste, they're gonna want more.

 

[Bank Shot]

Vegas, Seattle, Carolina, Dallas type strategy compared to say Edmonton/Toronto/Colorado.

Colorado had both when they won. Tampa always seemed to pull fantastic bottom six's out of their asses too. Those teams will always be amazing but I think there's room for more balanced teams going far.

Not saying having elite players is going to disappear or stop being important. Just that you can offset the loss of top players with good depth. Detroit for example is seen as dead in the water due to bad lottery luck. I think they'll be quite competitive in a couple years.

I thought Vegas/Seattle success was going to do it but teams haven't seemed to lean in to the strategy yet. Especially during the cap crunches. No one seemed to jump in and take advantage of it.

Trying to acquire as much depth as possible has always been what every team has aimed to do.

You don't see Vegas trading away top tier talent, high paid talent. They went out and got it in the cases of Stone, Pietrangelo and Eichel.

Not having elite players isn't a strategy. Teams try to get the best players possible to build around, and then add depth.

 

[alko]

Artificial Intelligence.

 

[Johnny Rifle]

Disposable jockstraps, fashion shows.


I predict more teams will run 7 defensemen.

 

[VaporTrail]

More physical fan and player altercations

 

[Fatass]

Vegas, Seattle, Carolina, Dallas type strategy compared to say Edmonton/Toronto/Colorado.

Colorado had both when they won. Tampa always seemed to pull fantastic bottom six's out of their asses too. Those teams will always be amazing but I think there's room for more balanced teams going far.

Not saying having elite players is going to disappear or stop being important. Just that you can offset the loss of top players with good depth. Detroit for example is seen as dead in the water due to bad lottery luck. I think they'll be quite competitive in a couple years.

I thought Vegas/Seattle success was going to do it but teams haven't seemed to lean in to the strategy yet. Especially during the cap crunches. No one seemed to jump in and take advantage of it.

we will see more tiny 5000 seat arenas.