Proposal: What changes would you want to see made in the NHL?

[UK Canuck]

I'm all about the players and what's best for them tbh, get rid of RFA contracts, why should elite rookies be forced to stay at teams operated by utter morons for half their career?

 

[Horse McHindu]

1) All-Star game: Best of 3 series. Team Canada (or whichever country’s team gets votes) vs. The best of the rest.

2) Elimination of the trade deadline: I’m not sure if I’m completely on board with this, but I think it would be interesting AF for a team to make a trade during the actual Stanley Cup finals. Granted, it would make the game look like a bit of a joke, but it would also be interesting AF.

 

[Horse McHindu]

I'm all about the players and what's best for them tbh, get rid of RFA contracts, why should elite rookies be forced to stay at teams operated by utter morons for half their career?

I’d be ok with this provided that the cap doesn’t go too far up.

If RFA contracts are eliminated altogether, combined with the salary cap continuing to increase, then the parity between small market teams and big market teams will steadily decrease.

I think the current system is really f***ing good. Make some minor changes here and there, but that’s as far as I’d go.

 

[MS]

I get what Melvin is saying with his system and in theory in a system with perfect parity where all 31 franchises were identical and identically attractive, it would work.

Problem is there isn’t perfect parity. We can already see in the current system where NYR is picking guys up at value that would never even look at playing here and where teams like Florida have an advantage due to tax rates.

I feel like in practice all the needle-movers would be signing in the East or in warm-weather destinations and a team like Vancouver would be left in the cold trying to overpay for middling players just to keep up. Basically the inequalities of the current system would get worse without teams in unattractive markets being able to draft/retain young talent.

Again, to me the simplest way to fix the tanking problem is to give all non-playoff teams a 1/15 chance of picking #1. Nobody would be outright tanking and those of us who love the draft could still enjoy it.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

I get what Melvin is saying with his system and in theory in a system with perfect parity where all 31 franchises were identical and identically attractive, it would work.

Problem is there isn’t perfect parity. We can already see in the current system where NYR is picking guys up at value that would never even look at playing here and where teams like Florida have an advantage due to tax rates.

I feel like in practice all the needle-movers would be signing in the East or in warm-weather destinations and a team like Vancouver would be left in the cold trying to overpay for middling players just to keep up. Basically the inequalities of the current system would get worse without teams in unattractive markets being able to draft/retain young talent.

Again, to me the simplest way to fix the tanking problem is to give all non-playoff teams a 1/15 chance of picking #1. Nobody would be outright tanking and those of us who love the draft could still enjoy it.

This wouldn't eliminate tanking - you'd just tank for 2nd overall instead of 1st.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Anyways, my solution for tanking is - if you draft 1st overall you can't draft lower than 6th overall for the next two seasons.

 

[MS]

This wouldn't eliminate tanking - you'd just tank for 2nd overall instead of 1st.

No, what I’m saying is that all 15 non-playoff teams are in an equal lottery. 31st place team has an equal chance of drafting 1st as 15th.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

No, what I’m saying is that all 15 non-playoff teams are in an equal lottery. 31st place team has an equal chance of drafting 1st as 15th.

Right, but let's say you're the worst team in the league, and you lose the lottery. You'll still draft 2nd overall, and teams will tank for that (like the Sabres in the McDavid/Eichel year). Or are you saying all non-playoff picks are assigned by lottery.

 

[MS]

Right, but let's say you're the worst team in the league, and you lose the lottery. You'll still draft 2nd overall, and teams will tank for that (like the Sabres in the McDavid/Eichel year). Or are you saying all non-playoff picks are assigned by lottery.

All 15 picks assigned by lottery. Equal chance for all 15 non-playoff teams to end up with any of the first 15 picks.

 

[Horse McHindu]

I think the current lottery system is fine the way it is. Again - if you're going to make changes, make small changes. The problem with 1/15 in my opinion, is that the weak teams will find it even more difficult to get out of the cellar. In a league and in a game where Bettman is continuously trying to grow interest throughout the US, the last thing you want to see if a team struggling for years on end and sucking the life out of a fanbase.

The lottery system the last few years has prevented most teams from deliberately tanking anyways.

p.s. __________What would a Team Canada vs. Team BestOfTheRest look like anyways?

Team Canada:

Marchand-McDavid-MacKinnon
Hall-Crosby-Marner
Tavares-Point-Seguin
Huberdeau-Bergeron-Stamkos

Rielly-Burns
Giordano-Pietrangelo
Doughty-Chabot

Price
Binnington


Team BestOfTheRest

Ovechkin-Matthews-Kucherov
Draisaitl-Barkov-P.Kane
Gaudreau-Pettersson-Pastrnak
Panarin-Aho-Rantanen

Hedman-Karlsson
Josi-Carlson
S.Jones-Klingberg

Vasilevskiy
Bobrovsky

 

[DL44]

Here's my change to contracts...

Contract values would be signed on a percentage of the cap.

Take money and dollar amount out of the equation.

So...
Max is 15%
Min is 1%
So contracts would generally be structured as approx:
Elite players: 13-15%
Top line/pairing types : 7-13%
4th liners/bottom pairings/depth: 1-2%
Everyone else tiered in between...
#1 goalies : 5-10%. Backups 1-5%. Elite>10%.
Middle sixers/middle D: 3-8%

An example of roster construction:
(But you take any current roster do this vs the current cap)

4-11-6
8-6-5
3-4-3
1-3-2/1 (57 F)

10-4
5-6
4-3/1 (33 D)

5/2 (7 G)

Teams have the ability to vary the value of multiyr contracts by a max of 1/2%
So.. back loaded RFA could go 4, 4.5, 5%
Front loaded UFA resigning could go 9, 9, 9, 8.5, 8
Mandatory annual contract devaluation of all post-30 contracts of 0.25% per yr.

5 yr max for re-signing
4 yr max UFA.

This would revolutionize player comparisons.

Edit:
Teams wouldnt need to disclose publically their financial business as much...
Player value and contract money would shift from $$$... to a purely percentile value a player has to a team.



(I've been thinking about this for yrs)

 

[Horse McHindu]

Here's my change to contracts...

Contract values would be signed on a percentage of the cap.

Take money and dollar amount out of the equation.

So...
Max is 15%
Min is 1%
So contracts would generally be structured as approx:
Elite players: 13-15%
Top line/pairing types : 7-13%
4th liners/bottom pairings/depth: 1-2%
Everyone else tiered in between...
#1 goalies : 5-10%. Backups 1-5%. Elite>10%.
Middle sixers/middle D: 3-8%

An example of roster construction:
(But you take any current roster do this vs the current cap)

4-11-6
8-6-5
3-4-3
1-3-2/1 (57 F)

10-4
5-6
4-3/1 (33 D)

5/2 (7 G)

Teams have the ability to vary the value of multiyr contracts by a max of 1/2%
So.. back loaded RFA could go 4, 4.5, 5%
Front loaded UFA resigning could go 9, 9, 9, 8.5, 8
Mandatory annual contract devaluation of all post-30 contracts of 0.25% per yr.

5 yr max for re-signing
4 yr max UFA.

This would revolutionize player comparisons.

Edit:
Teams wouldnt need to disclose publically their financial business as much...
Player value and contract money would shift from $$$... to a purely percentile value a player has to a team.



(I've been thinking about this for yrs)

Damn dude.

I don’t know enough about the intricacies of the cap to comment, but that sounds like an incredible concept. well done.

 

[RandV]

Responding specifically to the comment in bold... the kind of GM who agrees to such a crappy deal doesn't last long as an NHL GM. I think that is one of the points Melvin is trying to make... the draft has the unintended effect of masking the incompetence of poor GMs. In other words, a competent GM would never make such an offer to a player like Yakupov, but they would definitely make it to McDavid or Matthews.

In general... wow... what's with the "anarchy-capitalism" label. That's so weird and out there. There's a lot of violent imagery in your post... why is that?

I'll agree in general that soccer/football is completely different beast with regards to professional sports compared to NA sports.

Violent imagery? The correct term I should have used here is Anarcho-captialism, a fringe but legitimate political ideology that is basically just unfiltered capitalism with no government regulation. Hence the comparison, as you'd be removing a massive regulation in how the NHL is run and just assume the free market will handle it.

And it's naive to simply think the GM's would simply go through some form of natural selection and not make stupid decisions here. The problem with the GM's vs player agents is the deck is stacked in favour of the latter. Sure many have shown not to be very good at the job, but GM's are under pressure to achieve and have a limited window to do so in as well are in competition against 30 other GM's. It becomes a game of prisoner's dilemma except with way more than just two prisoners, an agent just needs to sit back and let them beat themselves. And when you're talking about the elite young talent coming into the league it's going to get ugly, like if people knew 17/18 year old Yakupov wasn't going to end up that good he wouldn't have been drafted 1st overall.

You can only guess here but I think the ultimate effect would be pretty boring. You wouldn't really have prospect pools, rather guys would just get signed when they're ready to join a pro or farm team, which means the majority of drafted kids simply wouldn't be signed if they're still in the CHL/College/Europe. Podkolzin, for example, wouldn't be up for grabs till he left the KHL in a year or two. And we already see with regular free agency that despite having 31 teams home-town bonus aside a few select teams are the choice destinations for the best pick up, this wouldn't be any different.

 

[Javaman]

Violent imagery? The correct term I should have used here is Anarcho-captialism, a fringe but legitimate political ideology that is basically just unfiltered capitalism with no government regulation. Hence the comparison, as you'd be removing a massive regulation in how the NHL is run and just assume the free market will handle it.

And it's naive to simply think the GM's would simply go through some form of natural selection and not make stupid decisions here. The problem with the GM's vs player agents is the deck is stacked in favour of the latter. Sure many have shown not to be very good at the job, but GM's are under pressure to achieve and have a limited window to do so in as well are in competition against 30 other GM's. It becomes a game of prisoner's dilemma except with way more than just two prisoners, an agent just needs to sit back and let them beat themselves. And when you're talking about the elite young talent coming into the league it's going to get ugly, like if people knew 17/18 year old Yakupov wasn't going to end up that good he wouldn't have been drafted 1st overall.

You can only guess here but I think the ultimate effect would be pretty boring. You wouldn't really have prospect pools, rather guys would just get signed when they're ready to join a pro or farm team, which means the majority of drafted kids simply wouldn't be signed if they're still in the CHL/College/Europe. Podkolzin, for example, wouldn't be up for grabs till he left the KHL in a year or two. And we already see with regular free agency that despite having 31 teams home-town bonus aside a few select teams are the choice destinations for the best pick up, this wouldn't be any different.

I didn't take Melvin's proposal to mean no regulations, which is why your description of it as "anarcho-capitalism" puzzled me.

I'm not sure contract negotiations would play out the way you've described above.

 

[DL44]

Outside of the box....

Idea instead of reducing games:
-Increase roster size to 25.
-make the maximum number of games any player can play in a season 75. Coaches need to be strategic in how to rotate the off games.

A more extreme: both goalies MUST play at minimum 10 mins every other game. (Really extreme: every game)
Puts a little more weight on the depth of the position. Would make for an interesting strategy by coaches... would coach start B, then ride A for the last 50. Would he put B on for every PP, then ride A the rest of way. Would B play the 1st, and A play the final 40. I would Start B for the beginning of each period till the first TV timeout. If he's standing in his head.. let it ride.
The stat tracking would be fun in this department.

Playoff OT change (low appetite to do this, except from TV rights holders and myself):
10 mins 5o5, 5 mins 4o4, 5 mins 3o3, SO.
-I dont much care for the idea of tradition as the argument for keeping the current system. Streamline it.

-I would require the neutral zone and the faceoff circles to be tinted any other color than white. Would flavor each arena a bit more.

 

[hookshott]

There's probably a charter rights violation somewhere in this proposal. Probably wouldn't fly to simultaneously return the draft age to 20 and prohibit players from earning a living in the NHL unless they have been drafted.

It seems to me that drafting a player's employment rights in their 18th year is already a pretty sketchy compromise.

Plus, teams would have a far better read on players if the age was bumped up to 20 for the draft (even 19 would help) so there would be fewer mistakes made by teams.

 

[LuckyDay]

Electronic measurement of goals scored above the crossbar. None of this trying to do this by sight anymore. The angle of the crossbar in reference to the boards on the x, y and z axis can easily be measured as well as the vector of the puck by it's size in relation with the net, boards, etc. You can perfectly calculate the puck this way.

• heck you can even make a grid for this with lasers or an overlapping CGI like they do for on glass ads

No cancelling of the offside if the puck is brought back in or is deflected back accidentally by your own player. All opposition players in the opposing zone must tag up.

Standardized goalie equipment. Goalies may only wear equipment given to them by the league.

No digital ads. No on ice ads. No ads on uniforms, including the NHL logo.

Get rid of the loser point. No ties. 3 points for a regulation win does not work - leads to dead puck boring hockey in the third. This has been proven. Only one gimmick to settle a game. Hate to drop overtime but shootout is the only way to do this.

4 on 4 hockey all the time except penalties. This, of course, is less likely than getting single payer medical in the US and for the same reasons.

Regular season to 60 games obviously.

No challenges.

No plastic equipment. Only leather.

Softer puck? Weird idea but we could things get like reducing the need for extra safety equipment including helmets, the net, and even reducing the glass back to wear it was so we can see it again.

Angled glass at the top so the puck deflects back into the game without the need to blow the whistle.

---

No draft and no limits on ELC's will backfire big time. Rookies always get overpaid and too many prospects fail. The numbers of 1st overalls that don't work out is surprising. Imagine the contract Nedved would have got. Management will ignore the cap limit and the cap limit has been manipulated from the start - by the players union and even the league.

 

[tantalum]

No cancelling of the offside if the puck is brought back in or is deflected back accidentally by your own player. All opposition players in the opposing zone must tag up.

Nope. This rule needs to stay as is. Otherwise it will be abused to kill time and slow the game down. I'm protecting a lead and I notice a guy tangled up in my zone down low I'm passing the puck into my zone to kill 10 seconds.

Standardized goalie equipment. Goalies may only wear equipment given to them by the league.

This is already done. If you mean a 5' 10" goaltender should where the same sized equipment as a 6' 5" goaltender then that isn't done but it is standardized to how high a pad can come up past the knee etc. All equipment is checked by the league prior to use.

Get rid of the loser point. No ties. 3 points for a regulation win does not work - leads to dead puck boring hockey in the third. This has been proven. Only one gimmick to settle a game. Hate to drop overtime but shootout is the only way to do this.

How has the 3 point for regulation win been proven to not work?

Regular season to 60 games obviously.

I don't find there is anything wrong with season length. You will never convince either side to remove 15% of the season gate plus other revenue from the game.

No challenges.

challenges are fine. The challenges the league allows in some cases are the wrong ones as they can only be challenged in one direction (i.e. offsides).

No plastic equipment. Only leather.

Everything is soft capped now that there isn't much if any exposed plastic for the common player-player impacts. Leather is heavy and not actually that protective. It would slow the game down and leave players more susceptible to injury.

Softer puck? Weird idea but we could things get like reducing the need for extra safety equipment including helmets, the net, and even reducing the glass back to wear it was so we can see it again.

Angled glass at the top so the puck deflects back into the game without the need to blow the whistle.

I can't imagine anything more frustrating to play and watch than a puck that is completely unpredictable any time it hits something. Gone would be the occassional weird bounce as the puck hits a seam...it would be replaced with a completely unpredictable bounce every shift.

 

[LuckyDay]

Nope. This rule needs to stay as is. Otherwise it will be abused to kill time and slow the game down. I'm protecting a lead and I notice a guy tangled up in my zone down low I'm passing the puck into my zone to kill 10 seconds.

This would be my only fear. You'd have to implement a rule to prevent this without removing its sometimes necessity or the fun in players skating from their own zone to build up speed going the other way. In fact, my idea could help this.

This is already done. If you mean a 5' 10" goaltender should where the same sized equipment as a 6' 5" goaltender then that isn't done but it is standardized to how high a pad can come up past the knee etc. All equipment is checked by the league prior to use.

Nope, I mean a 5'5" goaltender where's the same equipment as a 6'8" goalie. Maybe not the exact same equipment but the league will offer them a range of sizes from their own equipment which the goalie must take.

How has the 3 point for regulation win been proven to not work?

Bettman tested this in the minors. That's how they found out. This is what a coach at any level would do. We have a hard enough time stopping them from trying to win 1-0 even now.

I don't find there is anything wrong with season length. You will never convince either side to remove 15% of the season gate plus other revenue from the game.

Yeah, it's greed that stops them from doing this especially in a league where a sizeable chunk of it's revenue still comes from the gate. But its obvious to anyone the playoffs would be better for it and the players would have longer careers. You can't say it wouldn't. Can anyone say the Canucks and Bruins wouldn't have been better teams in 2012?

challenges are fine. The challenges the league allows in some cases are the wrong ones as they can only be challenged in one direction (i.e. offsides).

It could, if it implemented them better. Offsides were the only challenge they could get correct and they knew it. Yet it's the one place in officiating where they already do a great job.

Everything is soft capped now that there isn't much if any exposed plastic for the common player-player impacts. Leather is heavy and not actually that protective. It would slow the game down and leave players more susceptible to injury.

Soft capped or not the stuff is still more dangerous when used as a weapon then just leather or foam by itself.

I can't imagine anything more frustrating to play and watch than a puck that is completely unpredictable any time it hits something. Gone would be the occassional weird bounce as the puck hits a seam...it would be replaced with a completely unpredictable bounce every shift.

Of course not. You'd want to prevent this. A simple soft or foam rubber puck would do this so you'd want to make it a different material that doesn't act crazy.

 

[BROCK HUGHES]

the draft lottery is a joke,,
the all star game should go back to the original, east vs west 5 on 5,,
the game has to many rule changes every year,,let the players play the game.

 

[VanJack]

I know it's probably a pipe dream, but I've always wondered why the NHL doesn't use more technology like they do in tennis, where the use of the replay cam has virtually eliminated the disputed line calls. Balls that are in or out by the width of a hair can be confirmed.

Players skate a lot slower than a tennis ball, so some sort of laser system at the blueline might create the automatic "off-side" or "on-side". Meantime along the goal line, a goal would count the instant the puck broke the plane of the goal-line, even it was inside the goalie glove and not visible to the officials or the replay guys.

Like I said, probably years away.

 

[orcatown]

Maybe repeat some here

1) Don't use the off side rule to discount goals that aren't directly related to the goal (would only be applicable to a scorer who went in off side to score or received an off side pass then scored directly after that pass)

2) Play 4 on 4.

3) Create a set standard for goalie interference

4) Have rules enforced the same from the exhibition season to the Stanley Cup Finals. Get rid of the game management BS

5) Automatic ten game suspension for any thing deemed a deliberate head shot. Doubling on any subsequent similar infraction.

6) Shoot outs be best out of 5.

7) Take away the ability of drafted college players to become free agents upon 4 years of college or graduation.

 

[Sleepinghorse]

1. Senior referee for each game is off-ice with direct communication with the on-ice referee(s). He see's something, he simply has another quick look at it thanks to rewind features that everyone has in their living rooms now, then buzzes the on-ice guy who raises his arm and makes the call. There's no long, drawn out, stoppage in play, there's no need to add minutes back onto the clock, and the pace of the game in uninterrupted except for the whistle that should naturally come from an infraction.

2. Goaltenders need to be penalized more for diving, and for interference behind the net. Remove the "protection" from them once they wander below the goal-line. If a goalie like Mike Smith wants to be the 3rd dman, let him, but then he gets the same privilege of being hit by an opposing forward.

3. Lose the shootout and go back to the tie, OR, make the shootout 5 rounds and if still tied keep it tied, OR, make games worth 3 points.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

1. Senior referee for each game is off-ice with direct communication with the on-ice referee(s). He see's something, he simply has another quick look at it thanks to rewind features that everyone has in their living rooms now, then buzzes the on-ice guy who raises his arm and makes the call. There's no long, drawn out, stoppage in play, there's no need to add minutes back onto the clock, and the pace of the game in uninterrupted except for the whistle that should naturally come from an infraction.

This absolutely.

Also transparency when they DO go for the prolonged video review.

Show us what the video ref is watching (picture in picture) and let us hear what the ref on ice and video official are talking about. Like they do in Premiership Rugby.

 

[DL44]

If a game is tied with 5mins left in the game... it goes to 4on4 for the final 5 mins.
( then 3o3 for ot- as is)