What about a five-game autumn- cup?

[Name Nameless]

Just a little fun in the autumn. Some people talk about a september-cup in jest. Let's give that to the world. But as there needs some planning underways, it would be a little more than just in september.

Why? Well, if you compare the NHL with, say, the big Euro soccer leagues, one of the big differences is the amount of leagues and cup to win. In English soccer, there aren't only the league. It's two important cups. This makes it possible to win something for a larger part of the players. With 31, soon to be 32 teams, the part of the players -and fan-bases- actually winning something, is really small.

I know you have the Presidents Trophy. It could have meant a lot. It don't. Also, when you win it, you are just heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs, and there are not so much celebration of it. You also can't win it as an underdog who don't even make the SC playoffs.

So, just a little cup in the autumn, with single-game rounds. With 32 teams, that would be just five rounds. Just draw the rounds, and who gets the home game in the first round. Or you could match teams based on least travel-distance in the first round, that would be ok. In the second round, you could have the away-winning teams in a pot, and draw them as home-teams until you either run out of slots, or teams. With a similar higher odds for getting the game as a home-game in the third round, with a first pot of teams who won two road-games, so a promise you get the home-game now. And then drawing the home-team from a pot with teams who has had only one home game and so on.

Yeah, it's the availability to the arena-issues, that could also be used an element in the schedule-making, although not for the final two rounds or something if you want to tweak. As some arenas are dedicated hockey-arenas, you could risk having your team play the last home-games at a remote location, but that is also how the cups generally are arranged in Europe. I assume some arena -owner would promise to hold the finale if not the elected team manages to get hold of their own place.

My main point: with a short cup in the autumn, there is something else to win, and your team could go for the Double, or not.

Regarding the number of games: with 32 teams, there will be some tweaking anyways. And for half the teams, this cup would mean only one round. It should be possible for the players to accept it with just a shortening of the preseason with a couple of games in a future CBA, even if the players on the good teams then ends up playing up to three more games or something.

With a single-game cup, you will of course have a competition the players watch as less valuable. The fans could still have fun with it. The media could have something to write about, and the last game -the Autumn Cup finale- might, just might, end up as something people watched on TV, as it would be just one, defined, finale-game, a half-year removed from the Stanley Cup.

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[Prairie Habs]

I believe we already have this, its called the preseason.

Teams aren't going to want to put their players at risk of injury by making them play playoff games before even training camp. Players aren't going to want to cut their vacation short to play for free in another made up tournament. Fans aren't going to want to pay for games that don't matter.

 

[Bob Richards]

I actually really enjoy the September preseason and watching prospects and tweeners battle it out for lineup spots.

I'd prefer not to replace that with a second cup that I don't think anyone is going to care about lol.

 

[Prairie Habs]

I think the only way to try and make it work would be to try and expand on the rookie games. Teams can only send 23 and under players with less than 50 games NHL experience. Because most teams only have a handful of prospects really worth watching maybe have every team pair up with a sister team in the other conference. Each team sends 6F, 3D, 1G or, if you really want to focus on the top guys, make it 3v3 and each team send 4F, 2D, 1G. Go to a city like Toronto that has a bunch of rinks and play the games in a marathon on the course of a long weekend or something.

Fans might not care about vets gliding around in pre-pre-season, but they might tune in to see Montreal + Calgray's top prospects take on Toronto + Edmonton's in 3v3. Or maybe you have to team up with a rival instead of the other conference. NYI + NYR vs PHI + PIT.

 

[Name Nameless]

I believe we already have this, its called the preseason.

Teams aren't going to want to put their players at risk of injury by making them play playoff games before even training camp. Players aren't going to want to cut their vacation short to play for free in another made up tournament. Fans aren't going to want to pay for games that don't matter.

I was thinking start up in parallell with the regular season. Would finish some weeks into the season.

 

[Crazy Cizikas]

We need to pick colors and have a battle royalle in phase two.

Just joking. But I think it’s enough to have young players just try to earn a spot on a team before we turn them into gladiators.

 

[Windy River]

Let's do it.

 

[Zenos]

Well, the NHL already has the President's Trophy (akin to winning the League Title in Premiership, Bundesliga, etc.) and it isn'tregarded as anything special. So I'm not sure how one could change that. The playoff structure is simply too far ingrained in both North American sports culture (even its major soccer leagues all feature(d) end-of-season playoffs) and hockey culture (even in Europe, SHL, KHL, NLA, DEL, etc. all make use of playoffs to crown the champion).

And as long as we're having the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue in their current format, I can't see any other tournament having any legitimacy / being taken seriously.

Things like the Football League Cup, FA Cup or DFB Pokal (German soccer Cup) are popular because they have a crazy long tradition, have literally dozens and dozens of clubs competing, and allow for match-ups across divisions. That would be impossible to replicate in the NHL.

 

[jMoneyBrah]

I like the idea of a 32 team win or go home tournament. Perhaps in the middle of the season to replace the lame ass all star break.

They could conduct 4 divisional tournaments at a chosen venue from each division* to remove travel concerns and compress the schedule. Divisional quarterfinals (first round) could be morning and night games on Saturday and Sunday, with divisional semifinal games split over Monday and Tuesday, a rest day, and divisional finals on Thursday.

The Tournament semi-finals and final could be at a fifth venue and be a back to back with two games on Saturday and the finals on Sunday after a travel day on Friday.

Have the last regular season games of the first half on the Thursday before the tournament and then the second half of the season start the Saturday after the tournament, for a total of 15 day break from the regular season schedule.

Obviously it’s a compressed schedule, but you could get rest days for each team between games (excepting the tournament finals) - and it’d be interesting to see how ticket sales would be affected if the hosting city lost early - but it’d be a great way for the league to promote out of market players and teams to regional audiences and I think it’d be a home run from the tv ratings side.

Sell out for corporate sponsorship on the naming rights to the tournament and get the sponsor to put up a $5M pot for the winning franchise to payout to the players/coaches/training staff, and another $1M for tournament MVP. “Tim Horton’s Tournament for the the Bettman Cup” it just rolls off the tongue.

* perhaps you could award divisional hosting rights for the following year to the overall tournament winner as a way to incentivize teams to not sandbag for extra time off.

 

[JT Kreider]

Uh no

 

[glovesave_35]

If people don't care about the President's Trophy, they will not care about a mini-tournament in the Fall.

This just isn't Euro soccer.

 

[Number 57]

I'd like to see it happen but the only way teams actually care about it is if the games are part of the regular season standings. A tournament featuring rookies/tweeners trying to make the team will never hold any value whatsoever.

So you start on Oct 1st this tournament that you've described, with every team having an equal shot to win it.

Depending on how it unfolds, the NHL simply has to modify it's regular season schedule afterwards according to what happened in the tournament. So for exemple if Vegas ends up playing 4 games and Montreal only 1, they still need to end the regular season with 82 games in the end. So the NHL would need a software that would automatically change the schedule and adapt it to the number of games played by each team inside the tournament.

Yes, it would be a bit of a headache for arena availabilities due to the late changes but you know what? It could be worth it. There is something interesting about a tournament where everyone starts equally and everyone is fresh off their summer vacation (well, training). It would be quite an intense 32-team battle to kick things off. Very interesting.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

What about a dodgeball pre preseason tournyment

 

[Machinehead]

As a soccer fan I'd be very down for a third trophy, and actually caring about the PT.

 

[robertmac43]

I like the sentiment but the culture for sports in NA is just different then in Europe and it would not work here because of it.

Also the Cups in England are not as big as they once were. The FA cup has the history and is something, however the League Cup is essentially meaningless to most clubs, as most of the time they want to bow out of them and focus on their resources on the League fixtures or CL ones . A cup run does give something to cheer about for smaller teams (For me Brighton this year to the FA Cup semis) but even then it was not important at all in comparison to the League games going on.

 

[Whaleafs]

Everything about soccer is awful including this

 

[RobbieJMosher]

I think it would be better to make it like the vegas summer league where prospects play in a tournament

 

[the4thlinegrinder]

I’ll echo the sentiments of others regarding a prospects tournament. It would give young players (let’s say 21 and younger) the opportunity to not only audition for a spot in the NHL/AHL, but also for the WJHC.

They could have it set up in the same format as the soccer World Cup. 32 teams in 8 groups, 3 prelim games each, round of 16 through the final as single elimination.

 

[Name Nameless]

I’ll echo the sentiments of others regarding a prospects tournament. It would give young players (let’s say 21 and younger) the opportunity to not only audition for a spot in the NHL/AHL, but also for the WJHC.

They could have it set up in the same format as the soccer World Cup. 32 teams in 8 groups, 3 prelim games each, round of 16 through the final as single elimination.

Well, this is not such a bad idea either. My take was more a real, extra cup though, with the premium roster, and not as a part of the regular season standings. Starting early, and played in parallell for the first weeks or couple of months. I think this could create some buzz, and I think it's possible it could make the headlines of media- easy to sell a single-game semifinal, or finale.