What is your perfect NHL?

[5 Minute Major]

I’ll go with something realistic. A time clock on the shooter in shootouts.

 

[Breakers]

My dream playoff is where the 1st overall seed gets to choose his opponent in the first round of the qualifying teams.
Then 2nd overall gets to choose their playoff opponent unless choose by 1 etc etc

I think that would create rivalries.
apparently this idea was floated a few years back by a GM according to Dreger

i absolutely love it.

All the guys on TSN 1050 loved the idea, it was fresh new way of doing things which the NHL needs.

 

[Ciao]

No salary cap.

Fewer teams. Just those that could compete without a salary cap and/or league subsidies.

No points -- just wins and losses, like MLB. Treat an overtime/shootout win like an 11th inning walk-off -- just another win or lose.

Shorter season.

Earlier playoffs.

Lower divisions with relegation and advancement based on performance.

 

[RayMartyniukTotems]

My perfect NHL would consist of a 40 team league with 32 making the playoffs...the first round would be best of 5 and then best of 7...The top [playoff seed plays team 32 and 2nd seed plays team 31 and so on and so forth...It would also have 4 on 4 hockey permanately and no BS 3 on 3 crap...no OT's until play-offs and no F...ing shootouts save that for Sucker Soccer(Footbal).There would be a team in Quebec City in 2025 to revive that storied rivalvry with Les Canadiens and the Nords 2.0 would get the first pick in the draft upon entrance...there would be a team in Houston, Cleveland and Cincinnati,San Diego,KC,Hamilton, and Atlanta for 3.0...Expanding to 44 would add Milwaukee,Indianapolis,Portland and Hartford with the team being called the Whalers with that terrific Logo. All this Expansion would happen over the course of 12 years or by 2036 and the Salary Cap would be a cool 100 M for 2026 with a floor of 90 M and then 200 M by 2036... when Expansion hits the next prospective teams the NHL adopts a 5-2-1 format or 6 Skaters and 'Tender with players Not Being Exempt after 2 years of service at the NHL or AHL level or is a Veteran of 2-4 years in Europe...and players get total Free Agency after their ELC...with a team having the rights to match any offer and has first rights and a Franchise tag for minimum of 1 and max of 3 players! That's off the top of my head...and let's make Icing,Icing and no advantage for teams on the PK and the faceoff should be at the point where the players shoots the puck out and nets made to 6 X 6 dimensions. And the NHL would adopt a 3 round draft with players not drafted being Free to sign with anyone at 19 years old...this puts the onus on Scouting and Developing players and when it comes to Expansion all Rosters are frozen the previous Trade DeadLine so there isn't a flurry of trades...

 

[ponder719]

40 teams, 8 divisions of 5 teams each:

Montréal Canadiens / Toronto Maple Leafs / Boston Bruins / Quebec Nordiques / Ottawa Senators
New York Rangers / New York Islanders / New Jersey Devils / Hartford Whalers / Hamilton Tigers (or Toronto Toros, one of the two)
Philadelphia Flyers / Pittsburgh Penguins / Columbus Blue Jackets / Detroit Red Wings / Buffalo Sabres
Washington Capitals / Carolina Hurricanes / Tampa Bay Lightning / Florida Panthers / Atlanta Thrashers

Chicago Blackhawks / Minnesota Wild / Winnipeg Jets / St. Louis Blues / Kansas City Scouts
Nashville Predators / Dallas Stars / Houston Aeros / Utah Outlaws / Colorado Avalanche
Los Angeles Kings / Anaheim Ducks / Vegas Golden Knights / Phoenix Coyotes / San Diego Gulls
Seattle Kraken / Vancouver Canucks / Edmonton Oilers / Calgary Flames / San Jose Sharks

(there's room in my mind to adjust some of these teams, but the general gist is here.)

Home and home with everyone goes away. You play one home and one away game with every team in your conference's other three divisions (30), home games against two divisions in the other conference (10), away games against the other two divisions in the other conference (10), alternating on a two year cycle, and 4 home and 4 away games against the other four teams in your conference (32) to make up the 82 game schedule.

Postseason: In each conference, the four division winners get a bye, and the next 8 teams regardless of division play a best of 3 knockout round. Once you eliminate those teams, the playoffs proper begin, with a 1-8 seeding and no benefit to division winners.

2 points for a win, 1 point each for a tie, 0 points for a loss, 20 minute overtime, just as God intended.

I'm not remotely equipped to find the best solution on the cap situation, but I would implement a daily salary cap for the postseason.

No lottery. Worst team, best pick. If you want to git gud, git bad.

 

[NyQuil]

The season isnt too long as much as they've made far too many no emotion, no one cares forgettable games by moving away from emphasizing divisional opponents. Go back to emphasizing divisional games in the regular season. This "play everyone twice" crap is causing too many throw away games. It's also choking the life out of rivalries. Familiarity breeds contempt.

For example, its garbage that the Bruins only played the Canadiens 3x. It should be 6x a year like it was, then play the other division in your conference 3x and play the other conference once. (42 division games + 24 conference games + 16 other conference games). Get the emotion and hatred back into the game and the games will be more exciting to watch.

I still remember the 8 games against divisional opponents season and it was more like “wow, these guys again???”.

 

[Strangle]

1993

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

No 3 on 3 OT or shootout for tied games. Tied after 60, then no OT and 1 point each. 3 on 3 is so stupid.

 

[the valiant effort]

One with a CTE vaccine so we can get back to the good ol’ days

 

[Tawnos]

36 teams. 4 divisions of 9. 84 game schedule. 3 points for regulation win. 2 points for OT/shootout win. 1 point for OT/shootout loss.

6 games against each intradivision opponent (48)
2 games against the intraconference opponent (18)
1 game against the each in the other conference. Play against 1 division at home and the other division away (18)

Playoffs
Keep divisional bracket, but expand

Qualifying round
4v5 best of 3 in each division

First round
1 v qualifying winner in best of 5
2v3 in best of 7

Rest of rounds best of 7. In this setup, the playoffs take the same amount of time as they do now.

Full World Cup every 4 years and Olympics participation every 4 years, offsetting.

 

[Ruggs225]

32 teams in their current divisions
82 game schedule - 6 vs division(42), 4 vs other division in conference (24), 1 vs each team in other conference (16).

Playoffs - top team in each division get the 1&2 slot for the playoffs in each conference.
3-8 in each conference is by points. So technically the 2nd best team might have a better record than the 2 seed. But winning a division should count for something.

3 pts for win in regulation
2 pts for win in OT/SO
1 pt for loss in OT/SO

Season starts Oct 1.
Playoffs start no later than april 8. Playoffs done by june 15.

Draft is june 22.

Free agency starts on first monday after 4th of July. So no later than July 11.

Rule changes.
1. Hand passes are allowed in offensive zone, goals are allowed if the deflect off a glove. Puck cannot be thrown in goal.
2. Only 1 ref on ice, another is eye in the sky
3. PP lasts full two minutes
4. SHG ends PP
5. Offsides is not reviewable, unless it comes from league. ie: it was egregious or impacted the play.
6. OT goes to 7 minutes.
7. During OT, once in the offensive zone a player cannot exit with possession of the puck
8. As soon as puck hits blueline they have entered offensive zone. Puck does not need to clear line.
9. Cap hits are calculated by actual payment that year, not AAV. Performance bonuses impact the following year if met.
10. Active 23 man roster must be CAP compliant during playoffs for each round. So a team can spend over the cap, however a team selects 23 players active for the round and that team must be cap conpliant. In case of multiple injuries that result in less than 20 players, teams will be able to recall anybody on an ELC even if it goes over cap.
11. When a player checks a player and a the opposing team instigates a fight the following will happen. If there was a penalty on the check, the checker will receive the penalty and 5 min fighting major, the instigator of the fight would receive no penalty. If there was no penalty on the check, the checker receives no fighting major, the instigator receives instigator penalty as well as 5 min fighting major.

 

[Malkinstheman]

70 games and 30 teams. Also have the season start a few weeks earlier and get rid of most b2bs

 

[snag]

Nuke all teams west of the 100th Meridian and reset the league as it was meant to be played. Local ties and rivalries between big name cities. Every away game should be no more than a days train ride away. San Jose? Vancouver? UTAH? May as well have teams in Europe as the guy above said or even Siberia. It's ridiculous what Eastern teams have to go through traveling out west, screwing with time zones and adjusting to the culture. And that's not even getting into my real issues as a fan - 10 or 11 PM puck drop on a Tuesday night? Who do they think I am? So my kids are going to risk missing the school bus because my Sens are on a 'western road swing'? f*** that. Chicago, maybe Minnesota should be the absolute limit. Maybe cull a few of the more southern teams as well.

Yeah, that might get Toronto a cup.

 

[EXTRAS]

The perfect NHL for me would include a European Conference, with a coupla divisions (Northern and Central, perhaps?).

Of course, the name "NHL" is a misnomer even today, because the league stretches across two different nations. I suppose the NHL would need to be renamed to, say, WHL (World Hockey League), but I would have no issue with that.

Or, we can close our eyes and keep calling it NHL even after it expands to become a global league – just like we close our eyes to its current name making no sense.

I'm not kidding in the least. World-wide sports leagues are the path of the future. We'll get there one day – it's only a matter of time. Let's hope it's gonna be sooner rather than later.

(Yup, if the league is to consist of 44 or even more teams, a round-robin home-and-away format would no longer be feasible, in all likelihood. Some other playing format would need to be devised. I agree that 82 games per regular season is too much, or let's say, 82 or 84 games is the absolute maximum that anyone should require of these athletes. A reduction to around 70 would likely be reasonable, but it's improbable to happen.)

Nations Hockey League

 

[Jeune Poulet]

The f*** the "it's a business" mantra hockey league.

With old school blood, sweat and glory.

24 NHL teams
72 regular season games
16 teams make the playoffs.

No national anthems. No cringy war vet celebrations.

No gambling sponsoring of any sort. Gambling is weak and should be frowned upon.

Only wooden sticks allowed. None of that high tech, brittle shit.

Skates, pads, gloves in ugly, badass natural leather.

Make hockey nets 1% bigger to promote old school goalie athleticism instead of fat asses. If it's not enough, another percent the following season, and on until you have goalies that make saves instead of just blocking the net.

Scoring a shorthanded goal should also end a penalty. Everyone should try at all times.

3 points for a regulation win
2 points for an OT win
1 point for a shootout team
0 points if you lose in any way. No loser points.

Jerseys can only be made in natural fabrics like wool and cotton like in the old days, with timeless, classic logos like the OG-6. No ads anywhere. No ugly-ass scribbling, no gangsta jerseys. No baggy cuts.

In between games, the NHL should analyze all penalties. Any player that dives or fakes should be suspended.

No rules to prevent goalies from venturing out of the net. In fact, it should be encouraged. They should skate around handling the puck and taking down people. But outside of the blue paint, they can be hit like any other player. We should have more lunatics like Billy Smith, Gerry Cheevers, Hextall, Belfour, etc... not less.

No instigator rule. In fact, no rules to hinder fighting. Players should be encouraged to theatrically throw their stick away, slowly remove their jerseys, helmets while they circle each other and the crowd goes wild, and fight it off like it's the 70s or 80s. Even better if they have f***ing sideburns and shit.

No salary cap. No floor, no LTIR scummy crap.

No guaranteed contracts. You start sucking? f*** off.

Players only become free agents when they hit 30 years old. Like it used to be when this game was actually good. Don't like it? There are other leagues out there.

Every hockey fan who pays a ticket should expect to see an intense hockey game with no intentions of tanking. So the lottery is completely random. It's not based on where you finished the season.

For a complete 24 years cycle, a franchise can only ever draft at the same rank once. So everybody gets their turn eventually and things balance themselves out.

Players salaries are per game, not per season. And not only do they get paid in the playoffs, they get double pay! All the rules should reinforce the idea that competing is good, winning is everything. Play as much as you can. Play on one foot if you must. Sacrifice everything for the collective.

There is a relegation league with an extra 8 teams. The league is controlled by the NHL and uses the same rules and same contracts except guys down there earn 50% of what they will/would in the NHL. No trades are allowed between a NHL team and a relegation team.

Each year, the 8 NHL teams that don't make the playoffs play a tournament with the 8 teams currently relegated. The survivors play in the NHL the following season at full salary. Otherwise, you play in the purgatory league at 50% of your NHL salary and people hate you.

 

[dr robbie]

No ads on Jerseys.
No ads on the Helmets.
No ads on the Ice.
Minimal ads on the boards.

All games are streamed/televised on 1 service.

Going to the Olympics isn't a bargaining chip - the schedule works around it.

Tickets can be bought and picked up directly from the venue if wanted.
Online tickets are directly from the venue, so there isn't any mark-up/shady things on the side.

Make it so.

 

[Jared Dunn]

I am fine with the number of teams right now, don't feel further expansion is needed.

Less regular season games, 76 is the sweet spot
Back to 1-8 ranking for each conference
A single play in game pitting 7 vs 10, 8 vs 9

Oh also they pay me $20 an hour to watch from my couch

 

[ponder719]

I'm not remotely equipped to find the best solution on the cap situation, but I would implement a daily salary cap for the postseason.

Oh, right, just remembered. One cap thing I would definitely consider is players not subject to waivers (or possibly players not subject to waivers under a certain dollar amount) count as $0 against the cap, with a commensurate adjustment to the cap ceiling and floor. I'd want to defuse situations like the one a few years back where (I think it was) Toronto was running several players shy of a full roster because they had no cap space to bring up people to play, which elevated the risk of injury for the people who were there. If waiver-exempt players were also cap-exempt, they could have been called up to play to mitigate the safety issue.

 

[bleachdrinker]

Less regular season games, 1-8 playoff seeding, All-Star game is the "all star" selection of players vs. the reigning Stanley Cup champions

 

[Nogatco Rd]

A realistic and down to earth league, that’s completely off the wall and tremint with magic robots



Edit: check out @bleachdrinker ’s avatar in the post right before mine… same episode.. freaky

 

[AvroArrow]

1-8 system

If there is a tie for 8th place, the 2 teams play a single elimination game (basically a game 7) to see who gets in. It would be exciting as hell for the fans as well and would be a marquee matchup the league could market. If there are 3 teams tied for 8th, then we use the current tie breaker system to remove the lowest seed team.

Don't expand to 34 teams

Luxury tax about 10M, similar to what the NBA does. Say cap is 80M, teams can spend up to 90M, for every 1M they go over, they pay an additional 1M in luxury tax to the league. That money is then redistributed evenly among the bottom 5 revenue generators.

Teams get flexibility in case of injuries or can offer players a bit more money and it's not a completely broken system where richer teams can spend more than the rest, the lower revenue generating teams would be receiving money from probably 10-15 ish teams, still keeping that "parity"

Change the LTIR rule so that if a player is on LTIR when the season ends, he is ineligible to play in the playoffs. If you intend to have that player active in your cup, be cap compliant by game 82 and make the necessary changes. This paired with my luxury tax proposal would be a great fix to the LTIR cap cirumvention in my opinion.

82 games is a lot, most of the matchups are determined by like January, I would love to drop it to like 70 ish games in a perfect world but the owners and players need money so we keep the 82.

Go to a 3-2-1-0 point system


Stop forcing players to participate in political nights/events, all it does it create divide rather than bring fans together. It's a sport not politics.

Allow coaches to challenge a missed penalty that directly leads to a goal. Example Player X high sticks a defender who goes down, referee misses it, his team goes up the ice and scores. This has happened in key games in the playoffs and is inexcusable.

 

[kingsholygrail]

More violence.
W-L. Don't need points.

 

[Mattilaus]

Only two changes for me.

1) I want the refs to call penalties as written when they see them instead of the game management we have going on. A team shouldn't be less likely to be called for an infraction just because they were called for the last 2 penalties. Its either an infraction or it isn't, the score and previous penalties shouldn't matter.

2) implement the 3 point system. 3 points for regulation win, 2 points for ot/so win, 1 point for ot/so loss, 0 points for regulation loss. Make it so teams have incentive to push to win the game in regulation instead of both teams just becoming extremely conservative in the last 10 minutes of a tie game.

I could also get on board with ties in a 2 point system again with each team getting 1 point for a tie. Same result. Teams will push in regulation.

 

[Dog]

As it is at 32 teams with total games played for season 72. 82 is to many with 10 less games that's like at least 2 weeks+ off and so ends with playoffs in early June. I'm in favor of losing shootout and going back to ties. Shootout think was bad idea for NHL games. Just go 5 minutes with the 4 on 4 in overtime if nobody scores it ends tied. Never was in favor of dragging games longer than needed.

 

[Faterson]

I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure the thread I was responding to is "What is your perfect NHL" not "What time does @Faterson have to wake up to watch NHL games?"

I was merely expressing my sympathy with the extreme suffering your household must be going through by having to watch hockey games at 10 PM instead of in the middle of the night. HFBoards is the place on the Internet for mutual comfort and consolation, after all.