Souker
Registered User
- Feb 10, 2020
- 240
- 205
The NHL is facing many challenges right now which were reportedly discussed in some of the last few GM meetings, notably:
I’ve been following this league for decades and as a business major, have studied the NHL business model quite a bit as part of one of my researches (for what it’s worth, I documented a paper on the potential expansion of the NHL to Vegas and Seattle back in 2009).
This doesn’t mean I know the league’s business model, ownership dynamic and vision inside and out, but I’d like to think that I have some basic understanding of their business model and the CBA.
My proposed solution:
Playoffs:
1-6 of each conference automatically make it in the round of 16.
7 plays 10, 8 plays 9 in a best of 3 or 5 (further market study required) in a Wild-card play-in tournament to get one of the final 2 wildcard spots.
The team ranked first in each conference get to PICK their matchup among the 2 teams that won their wildcard matchup from their conference.
The other wildcard team that isn’t picked plays the 2nd of the conference (then 3vs6, 4vs5).
Objectives attainted:
Draft Tournament:
Bottom 8 teams in the league (based on overall NHL standing), get randomly drawn into matchups together (no conference or standing criteria).
This is a single knockoff 3 round tournament.
The 2 finalists of this mini-tournament will get the first 2 overall picks (winner gets first overall).
Everyone else that participated are ordered in the draft based on their final regular season standing regardless of how far they made it in the tournament. For example, this means that the team that finished last in the standings will get 3rd overall at worst if they don’t make it to the final (let’s say they got eliminated in the first round).
Note: For the first round matchups, the team lower in the standings should get home-ice for that single KO game.
For the semi final and final (since it’s a 3 round KO tournament), the team highest in the standings get the home ice.
Objectives attainted:
Overall:
When combining these 2 elements, the NHL would arguably create a more competitive environment, while giving more significance to the regular season performance.
Additionally, depending on whether they would go with a best of 3 or 5 format for the wildcard games, the league would generate more revenue with up to 17 additional games (or 13 if it’s a best of 3, which is personally my preference), without mentioning the buzz that it would create.
With this format, all but 4 teams would see some sort of action past the 82 game mark (whether it’s through the playoffs, wildcard play-ins or the Draft Tournament).
The wild card play-in and the draft tournament would be played at the same time.
If the league is indeed planning on expanding in the medium-term, this format becomes that much more interesting.
(On a side note, the league should consider making the preseason a little shorter and start the regular season by the end of September rather than in mid October). At the end of it all, the Stanley Cup final would take place a little earlier. (FYI most teams lose money on preseason games anyway).
Sorry for the long text but felt I had to be somewhat thorough about the explanations.
Curious to hear what people think of this proposal (constructive comments and feedback only please).
Thanks for reading.
- Not enough teams in the playoffs. The number of teams in the league have went up but not the number of playoffs team.
- Tanking. How to solve this?
- Generating more revenue and viewership in the league, specially for some of the bottom teams in the league at the tail end of the season (low attendance and follower-ship).
- (This point is not necessarily discussed by GMs but) there is definitely some frustration on the fan side with the current format of playoffs by division which penalizes teams in stronger divisions and takes away some of the point of finishing first in the conference for the sake of “rivalry”.
I’ve been following this league for decades and as a business major, have studied the NHL business model quite a bit as part of one of my researches (for what it’s worth, I documented a paper on the potential expansion of the NHL to Vegas and Seattle back in 2009).
This doesn’t mean I know the league’s business model, ownership dynamic and vision inside and out, but I’d like to think that I have some basic understanding of their business model and the CBA.
My proposed solution:
Playoffs:
1-6 of each conference automatically make it in the round of 16.
7 plays 10, 8 plays 9 in a best of 3 or 5 (further market study required) in a Wild-card play-in tournament to get one of the final 2 wildcard spots.
The team ranked first in each conference get to PICK their matchup among the 2 teams that won their wildcard matchup from their conference.
The other wildcard team that isn’t picked plays the 2nd of the conference (then 3vs6, 4vs5).
Objectives attainted:
- More teams involved in the playoffs.
- More revenue generated.
- Better significance to finishing first of the conference.
- More “buzz” around the wildcard teams and the matchup picked by the team finishing first. (Could you imagine what an upset would do in terms of buzz to the league if a team picked their matchup and lost? You wanted to create rivalry?)
- More fair advantages to teams finishing top 4 in the conference.
Draft Tournament:
Bottom 8 teams in the league (based on overall NHL standing), get randomly drawn into matchups together (no conference or standing criteria).
This is a single knockoff 3 round tournament.
The 2 finalists of this mini-tournament will get the first 2 overall picks (winner gets first overall).
Everyone else that participated are ordered in the draft based on their final regular season standing regardless of how far they made it in the tournament. For example, this means that the team that finished last in the standings will get 3rd overall at worst if they don’t make it to the final (let’s say they got eliminated in the first round).
Note: For the first round matchups, the team lower in the standings should get home-ice for that single KO game.
For the semi final and final (since it’s a 3 round KO tournament), the team highest in the standings get the home ice.
Objectives attainted:
- You make teams work for those sought after first 2 overall picks.
- Cut down on tanking significantly as 8 teams have an equal opportunity for those 2 picks.
- The teams that finish at the bottom of the league are still not too penalized as they can only drop 2 spots (doesn’t halt their rebuild).
- Gives an opportunity for those lower-middle ranked teams to get competitive faster.
- More revenue and buzz generated.
Overall:
When combining these 2 elements, the NHL would arguably create a more competitive environment, while giving more significance to the regular season performance.
Additionally, depending on whether they would go with a best of 3 or 5 format for the wildcard games, the league would generate more revenue with up to 17 additional games (or 13 if it’s a best of 3, which is personally my preference), without mentioning the buzz that it would create.
With this format, all but 4 teams would see some sort of action past the 82 game mark (whether it’s through the playoffs, wildcard play-ins or the Draft Tournament).
The wild card play-in and the draft tournament would be played at the same time.
If the league is indeed planning on expanding in the medium-term, this format becomes that much more interesting.
(On a side note, the league should consider making the preseason a little shorter and start the regular season by the end of September rather than in mid October). At the end of it all, the Stanley Cup final would take place a little earlier. (FYI most teams lose money on preseason games anyway).
Sorry for the long text but felt I had to be somewhat thorough about the explanations.
Curious to hear what people think of this proposal (constructive comments and feedback only please).
Thanks for reading.
