A list of things the NHL does well.

[FMichael]

Making sure Quebec City stays an instant relocation option if required.

…and one must not forget the disaster in the desert aka the Arizona Coyotes

 

[Golden_Jet]

The talking heads range from boring to awful, and are either neutral or outright hostile towards the Leafs.

lol, it’s the complete opposite.
Appreciate a good chuckle though, thanks.

 

[Score8]

Huge fan of the rock solid consistency from DOPS. Also love the scheduling, it’s awesome those nights we have 2 games, finally I’d be remiss if didn’t recognize the fantastic job they do every year showcasing their top talent in their annual Allstar game.

 

[Derailed75]

As mentioned before. The Cap is done correctly. Basically, learn how to build a team within parameters that make it even and balanced so every team can be good.

The playoffs. There is no sport with a better playoff. As much as people hate the starting format, and honestly, I'm not thrilled with it. There is no better time of the sports year.

I think the All-Star weekend is close. The games themselves suck but I enjoyed most of the skills competition last year.

 

[GMR]

Shorter commercials breaks.

Games end faster than the other North American sports leagues.

 

[Drake1588]

The NHL playoffs are still awesome, and they've resisted proposals to tinker with the format. A lot of that is on the commissioner.

Although the salary cap is more about ensuring cost certainty than parity, the ancillary parity is a welcome change from, say, what we saw in the MLB this winter. Hard cap, no exceptions. It's unique and it's refreshing that more teams can compete for titles in the NHL, when compared with the disparity that plagues some of the other North American sports leagues.

 

[Bruce Granville]

The end.

 

[Ezekial]

The NHL is great at producing insecure, complainy fans

 

[Bounces R Way]

I like their logo

 

[GirardIsStupid]

NHL is a f***ing trash league. The income they make should be performance based and they should refund fans when they're players decide not to show up for games.

I watch hockey in spite of the NHL. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.

Exactly.

 

[DeltaSwede]

Hard cap and keeping the league competitive. Still nowhere close to a passing grade as a whole IMO.

Would be great to get some new and young blood in with the league. Decisions are easily attributed to most execs being absolute dinosaurs and out of touch with the fans.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

They mimic a petulant, spoiled rich kid who needs everything to go their way and everyone else is wrong.

 

[DeltaSwede]

I like their logo

Old one was way cooler though

 

[Melrose Munch]

I KNOW I KNOW

At least they're not Hockey Canada...

 

[yada]

Load management isnt a thing like the NBA

No gimmicky play in round like MLB or NBA has (mlb sort of ditched theirs) during full seasons

Nhl still has the best players

ESPN+ is far and away the best priced version of extra innings/mlbtv, sunday ticket, nbatv

Salary cap floor. What good is it to keep big teams from over spending if teams like the Oakland As (mlb) can have a team payroll less then some individual players make in 1 season.

 

[Markster]

The hard cap. It’s refreshing to follow a sport in which ownership commitment is not a relevant talking point. Every team will spend when they are or expect to be good, at least. It’s all at the feet of managers.

Until the playoffs start.

 

[Soundwave]

Relative to other sports leagues?

They have Connor McDavid.

And that's about all I can come up with.

 

[ole ole]

Here's something the NHL does not do well . Doing the cap fair for all in which it isn't.


TSN personality and former Maple Leaf Frank Corrado brought up the stark advantage a Florida-based team has when it comes to the cap since it's a state with no state income tax. Within the Gavin Hockey Wealth website, there is a calculator that breaks down the tax difference between States and between Canada and the U.S., and this handy little tool revealed something pretty profound about Nylander's potential $11.5M AAV.

If Nylander does sign in Toronto for $11.5M, he will still net less money than Matthew Tkachuk at $9.5M in Florida.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, for example, have three players on their roster with a cap hit of $9.5M in Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. They will all take home more in net salary then Nylander will in Toronto, even if Nylander eclipses $11M per season.

It's no coincidence that teams from the state of Florida and Vegas are having so much success in the salary capped NHL while a Canadian based franchise hasn't won the cup in the salary cap era. It's not just about the American markets outnumber the Canadian markets by more than 3-to-1, it's also because living in these States provides players with a huge income tax incentive.

Want fairness. Make the cap for the teams NET pay not gross pay

 

[Rufus T Firefly]

1) uh..

So that’s what I got, what about you?

Hockey is the best sport in the world and the talent has never been better, so of course I still love watching games. But I just wonder what exactly does the league itself do that you think is good.

Reffing, scheduling, rules, the website, DoPS, I have problems with all these things. None of them are good. So can anyone think of anything the league does well except increase franchise values? I know, literally execs’ jobs, but I’d say improving the actual product might help in that aim. Thoughts?

Honestly, you North Americans are spoiled, I swear...

How many times have you ever watched a different professional league than the NHL?

-The Jerseys. NHL jerseys are classy and until recently entirely ad free. Have you seen some European jerseys? And have you seen some of the rinks? I know it's changing in the NHL, but sometimes you can't even find the name on the back of the jersey in some European leagues amongst all the advertisements.

-Parity. I know there are a lot of complaints about this, but have you tried watching European soccer where 1-4 teams have an actual shot at winning the league and the rest are vying for other spots in tournaments or just not getting relegated. It's real nice to see teams go through cycles where they are bad, then good, then bad again, or have surprisingly good seasons when expectations are low (like Vancouver or the Jets this year). There's much more excitement heading into every season instead of say, the Bundesliga where it's just a countdown to see when Bayern wins. Parity creates storylines, which creates engagement and excitement.

-Salary cap. I think hockey fans would get real tired, real quick if the Leafs, Rangers, Blackhawks, Habs were always in the playoffs because they could outbuy all the other teams. There would be more Arizonas (no offense) out there that would just become farm teams for the big contenders and the whole league would get lop-sided and boring. A facet I (and plenty of other Europeans I talk to) love about the NHL and some NA sports is the added game within a game of the salary cap. Teams can't just buy championships à la Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain.

-The draft. Just drafting players and not having players developed through youth associates to teams really creates a dynamic. I know a lot of North Americans just assume this is the status quo, but in other countries and in other sports this isn't necessarily the case. It's fun seeing talent spread around and rewarding to see teams who do their homework on kids, draft well, and develop well create good teams. Just having academies would probably over enrich some of the big Canadian teams and create a lop-sided league that isn't as competitive and thus less fun to watch.

-European players. Honestly, this is where North Americans are the worst. NHL teams basically steal good European players for free without any compensation for the club or countries that develop them. How much better would the SHL be with EP40, Zibinejad, Nylander, Karlsson, Dahlin, etc.? That the NHL has managed to avoid any sort of transfer fees to these clubs must save the NHL tons of money. It basically creates a system where the world feeds the NHL players and the NHL doesn't have to compensate anyone for that -- which is a huge coup. And annoyingly there is this sense of entitlement from NA fans, where overseas teams "ruin" "their" prospects by not giving them top line minutes right away, not catering just to them and that the needs and wants of the team that has scouted, developed and managed the players up until then don't matter and should be sidelined in place of an NHL prospect. This might sound like complaining from me, but honestly here the NHL has just outplayed everybody and has found itself a golden goose and has done well to do so. And then they do one better by engaging the European community by broadcasting the early games in NA at good viewing times for us here in Europe in order to showcase European stars, so that we now follow the NHL and not just our local leagues, thereby increasing the NHL's reach.

-Professionalism. The broadcasts are done really well. The announcers for the most part of all quite good, they have done their homework before hand, have good insights into the game, the camerawork is excellent with almost nothing being missed, the coaching staff is always well dressed and not in workout attire like Bill Bellichek or some EPL managers. Sometimes instead of the NA feed, we'll get Norwegian commentators here in Norway for Saturday or Sunday games and it's horrible. It's kind of like a GDT here but verbal. Even the worst of the worst from the US like Boston or Colorado are better than them.

I could go on, but the NHL does plenty right and acting like it doesn't do anything well is just childish. NA fans are spoiled and don't know what they have. It's like being in high school and you're gifted a Porsche and you spend all your time complaining about it not being a Ferrari, meanwhile here in Norway we're biking to our part-time job at McDonalds trying to save up to buy our uncle's 20 year old Skoda.

 

[pekka55]

Relative to other sports leagues?

They have Connor McDavid.

And that's about all I can come up with.

Well, what have they really done with McDavid? They don't market him. Partly because he has the personality of a card board cutout. No one really knows about him. More people know Gretzky and he played before the internet and social media. That's a problem.

 

[wintersej]

They have been more successful with expansion than the other major sports.

And they have the best cap setup that is fair to the players and owners. NFL is way too owner friendly. MLB is ridiculous with have and have nots. NBA is a bit screwy right now with how things are going to play out the next few seasons with super max deals.

 

[snag]

Honestly, you North Americans are spoiled, I swear...

Just because we have standards that maintain our society and then we have to bail you guys out for your failure to, we're spoiled?

Just kidding....having fun. Don't have much to say against what you did lol

 

[Tom Polakis]

Yay, another bitch thread!

Whether or not the NHL in particular has anything to do with it, the quality of play is jaw-droppingly good compared to even 10 years ago, much less 30, and the league attracts the world's best players.

The introduction of the salary cap makes the sport far more interesting than sports in which many teams are effectively eliminated from contention a couple months into the season.

Sports fans hate ties, especially when 20 percent of the games end in them. Call it a gimmick, but 3-on-3 and a shootout is a way to settle regular-season games in a reasonable time period.

The number of teams, divisional, and conference alignments are nearly perfect. For everyone who argues that there should be more divisional games, someone else wants to see games against the other conference.

And yes, refereeing in the NHL is as good as any league. Name a hockey league with better refereeing. Just maybe it seems bad because real-time action on the ice doesn't occur at 1 frame per second.

 

[wgknestrick]

Ensures their players have a high chance of CTE after (early) retirement.

Seriously, enough with the slap of wrist and non punishment of headshots and head contacting hits. The league is so far behind crafting rules that protect its most valuable asset, the players. Every playoffs end has about 100mil of players that require surgeries after their team is eliminated.

- You are allowed to hit a player already engaged with a defending player (IE little focus left to identify a 2nd checker)​

- No mandatory suspensions for penalties involving injuries​

- Very loose rules for "puck gone" late hits​

- No "play puck first" rule​

- Blaming victims for putting themselves in bad situations (IE turn back in split second, change height level, etc). There is no out of bounds in hockey so you can't just move into a safe area ever.​

​

I understand that I'm in the minority of fans who don't have bloodlust and want to see 1-2 players sacrificed per game in the NHL's colosseum of CTE. I actually like the game of hockey and watching talented players try to score.

I also have to spend $19.99/month to legitimately watch Canes games in market without getting an ancient cable box. No other significant programming comes with that price, just Canes games.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Honestly, you North Americans are spoiled, I swear...

How many times have you ever watched a different professional league than the NHL?

-The Jerseys. NHL jerseys are classy and until recently entirely ad free. Have you seen some European jerseys? And have you seen some of the rinks? I know it's changing in the NHL, but sometimes you can't even find the name on the back of the jersey in some European leagues amongst all the advertisements.

-Parity. I know there are a lot of complaints about this, but have you tried watching European soccer where 1-4 teams have an actual shot at winning the league and the rest are vying for other spots in tournaments or just not getting relegated. It's real nice to see teams go through cycles where they are bad, then good, then bad again, or have surprisingly good seasons when expectations are low (like Vancouver or the Jets this year). There's much more excitement heading into every season instead of say, the Bundesliga where it's just a countdown to see when Bayern wins. Parity creates storylines, which creates engagement and excitement.

-Salary cap. I think hockey fans would get real tired, real quick if the Leafs, Rangers, Blackhawks, Habs were always in the playoffs because they could outbuy all the other teams. There would be more Arizonas (no offense) out there that would just become farm teams for the big contenders and the whole league would get lop-sided and boring. A facet I (and plenty of other Europeans I talk to) love about the NHL and some NA sports is the added game within a game of the salary cap. Teams can't just buy championships à la Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain.

-The draft. Just drafting players and not having players developed through youth associates to teams really creates a dynamic. I know a lot of North Americans just assume this is the status quo, but in other countries and in other sports this isn't necessarily the case. It's fun seeing talent spread around and rewarding to see teams who do their homework on kids, draft well, and develop well create good teams. Just having academies would probably over enrich some of the big Canadian teams and create a lop-sided league that isn't as competitive and thus less fun to watch.

-European players. Honestly, this is where North Americans are the worst. NHL teams basically steal good European players for free without any compensation for the club or countries that develop them. How much better would the SHL be with EP40, Zibinejad, Nylander, Karlsson, Dahlin, etc.? That the NHL has managed to avoid any sort of transfer fees to these clubs must save the NHL tons of money. It basically creates a system where the world feeds the NHL players and the NHL doesn't have to compensate anyone for that -- which is a huge coup. And annoyingly there is this sense of entitlement from NA fans, where overseas teams "ruin" "their" prospects by not giving them top line minutes right away, not catering just to them and that the needs and wants of the team that has scouted, developed and managed the players up until then don't matter and should be sidelined in place of an NHL prospect. This might sound like complaining from me, but honestly here the NHL has just outplayed everybody and has found itself a golden goose and has done well to do so. And then they do one better by engaging the European community by broadcasting the early games in NA at good viewing times for us here in Europe in order to showcase European stars, so that we now follow the NHL and not just our local leagues, thereby increasing the NHL's reach.

-Professionalism. The broadcasts are done really well. The announcers for the most part of all quite good, they have done their homework before hand, have good insights into the game, the camerawork is excellent with almost nothing being missed, the coaching staff is always well dressed and not in workout attire like Bill Bellichek or some EPL managers. Sometimes instead of the NA feed, we'll get Norwegian commentators here in Norway for Saturday or Sunday games and it's horrible. It's kind of like a GDT here but verbal. Even the worst of the worst from the US like Boston or Colorado are better than them.

I could go on, but the NHL does plenty right and acting like it doesn't do anything well is just childish. NA fans are spoiled and don't know what they have. It's like being in high school and you're gifted a Porsche and you spend all your time complaining about it not being a Ferrari, meanwhile here in Norway we're biking to our part-time job at McDonalds trying to save up to buy our uncle's 20 year old Skoda.

1) they recently switched to Fanatics jerseys, we’re all super happy about that.

2) I’m a fan of the parity as well, but that’s more just a function of the cap and current players’ abilities.

3) Ya, that’s just standard for the US though.

4) I’d say that’s just money- tends to collect at the top, and that’s what the NHL is. Again, same with most other US sports leagues.

5) Professionalism? Have you seen reffing, the website, the lack of transparency on anything? Sweet, there’s some money put into the broadcasts. There should be.

I could go on, about how it’s like I don’t have a Ferrari or basic health care, but I’m gonna guess that doesn’t quite register with you.