What if...the NHL held a mid-season tournament every year?

[chauron]

There should be a tournament, perhaps 3 vs 3 player tournament, but just not within current NHL. It could be a spinoff brand but not part of ”regular” product.

I could easily watch more hockey like that and it wouldnt mess NHL either.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

If hockey was like soccer and it was mostly domestic league, it would be very cool to have a Champions League and other domestic tournaments.

Adding a meaningless midseason tournament to a closed league sounds like a bad gimmick.

 

[Zaddy]

I definitely think there should be something more. In European football you have the league, the league cup and either the Europa League or Champions League to play for. Then on top of that there are smaller cups/matches like community shield, UEFA Super Cup etc. This is a way better format than just playing 82 regular season games then having playoffs. Having only 1 out of 32 teams being able to win each season is honestly pretty terrible.

Like sure, that makes the Stanley Cup really prestigious no doubt but whose to say there can't be other, less prestigious tournaments/cups to win as well? I think some type of cup that is being played out throughout the season (similar to Champions League) could be very entertaining. Hell, you could have it being played only through the first half of the season so the second half of it can be focused on making the playoffs (and winning the Cup) if you're worried about it interfering with the Cup hunt.

Alternatively, you could remove the AHL playoffs and instead have the top AHL teams go at it with the NHL teams that didn't make the playoffs. Presumably this wouldn't be too well-liked by the players on the NHL teams who failed to make the playoffs however so I don't know how you'd make it work. It would only work if there was relegation and they actually had something to play for.

I don't know, I definitely think there needs to be something more to NHL hockey than just 82 regular season games and the playoffs. Make the regular season shorter and add another tournament/cup. For the 31 unlucky fanbases it would be nice to at least win something in a season. Also it would be even more prestigious if the team who won the Cup was able to win the double. I really don't see a downside to this.

 

[MadLuke]

I could see them doing some sort of summer prospect tournament in place of the usual prospect camps.

This sound more interesting (and could be what it would be in reality, you can imagine most veteran claiming missing this year to cure some nagging injury), if it is only player fighting for a roster spot (or keeping it), regardless on the worthiness of the trophy they would work hard.

 

[Flukeshot]

I'm in the group (potentially a minority) that would prefer the regular season be a fair bit shorter. We are at a point with 32 teams and 4 divisions that 76 games makes a lot of sense. Which would allow for something like this.

It just has to mean something though, and perhaps more importantly has to generate incremental revenue.

Find a way to carve up the 32 teams into groups that aren't based on their current divisions and create 4 or so new mini tournaments.

"Rogers" Canada Cup is a no brainer, "Tropicana" Sunshine Belt, "Ford" American Classic (Oldest US markets)...

Use those teams h2h standings from the prior to create a ranking.

Limited edition jerseys, maybe a couple of gimmicks, ads on Jerseys! Sell out.

 

[Kaner9]

Why not give it a shot? I dunno if it would work but Id watch it and then judge.

 

[Stephen]

Maybe they should shorten the regular season to 72 games, and then have an expanded play-in format for all the non division winners, and a seeding tournament between the division winners to determine... seeding.

And then for the dregs of the league who didn't make the play-ins, their penalty will be losing 10 games off the schedule including 5 home games worth of revenue... so pull up your socks... but see you at the draft, no lottery.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

Yeah but… the Leafs would lose in the first round of that one too.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I think this might work in a league with a less legendary championship trophy

 

[Wats]

Soccer and European leagues already do it.

I'd love to have a Canadian championship type tournament. I'm sure you can do similar with other regions like California/New York etc.

Games can even count towards regular season standings, just arranged in a way that makes all the Canadian teams face each other.

 

[Pavels Dog]

I definitely think there should be something more. In European football you have the league, the league cup and either the Europa League or Champions League to play for. Then on top of that there are smaller cups/matches like community shield, UEFA Super Cup etc. This is a way better format than just playing 82 regular season games then having playoffs. Having only 1 out of 32 teams being able to win each season is honestly pretty terrible.

What you want is essentially to split the NHL into 4 seperate Leagues (at minimum).

The reason things like Champions League exist and are fun is because you get to see top teams from each League face eachother - which doesn't happen during season play.
League cup is usually pretty meaningless and not exciting (there likely exist exceptions, but most teams use B-squads as to not wear out their star players).

In europe we have Champions Hockey League which is an attempt to replicate soccer's champions League. It doesn't have nearly the same status. It's just hard to replicate soccer - Everything about it is different. You have rich teams in spain, rich teams in England, rich teams in Italy etc. Superstars in every league.
NHL has all the stars. The fun is seeing the stars. You see them during the regular season. There is no NEED to create some different circumstance of play.

 

[pandro]

All I wish is that the league would bring back the tie, switch to the 3-1-0 point system, shorten the regular season to ~60 games, start the season in September, finish the playoffs in April. In my opinion, it would be a perfect league with a meaningful regular season and a more adequate overall timeframe.
Unforunately, this approach isn't popular even among the fans, as people seem to hate ties and "want more hockey not less".

 

[Zaddy]

What you want is essentially to split the NHL into 4 seperate Leagues (at minimum).

The reason things like Champions League exist and are fun is because you get to see top teams from each League face eachother - which doesn't happen during season play.
League cup is usually pretty meaningless and not exciting (there likely exist exceptions, but most teams use B-squads as to not wear out their star players).

In europe we have Champions Hockey League which is an attempt to replicate soccer's champions League. It doesn't have nearly the same status. It's just hard to replicate soccer - Everything about it is different. You have rich teams in spain, rich teams in England, rich teams in Italy etc. Superstars in every league.
NHL has all the stars. The fun is seeing the stars. You see them during the regular season. There is no NEED to create some different circumstance of play.

I understand your point, but I do think it would still be entertaining to see at least a league cup or something that is being played through the first (or middle) part of the season. Alternatively you could hold some kind of playoffs for the teams that didn't make it and they'd battle it out for a lotto pick or something IDK. Champions Hockey League sucks for many different reasons, chief among them that the best teams in the world aren't participating and all the best teams play in the same league. I rarely even watch European hockey at all because it's not a good product. Same reason I don't watch Swedish football even though I'm Swedish. If it's not the best players playing it's not interesting. So I think an NHL cup would be interesting because it's still the best teams participating and a different format would freshen things up a little.

 

[pld459666]

Hate any idea that interrupts the regular season

Even the Olympics

 

[Pavels Dog]

I understand your point, but I do think it would still be entertaining to see at least a league cup or something that is being played through the first (or middle) part of the season. Alternatively you could hold some kind of playoffs for the teams that didn't make it and they'd battle it out for a lotto pick or something IDK.

On a semi-serious note; why not have a digital tournament during the season where players from each team go up against eachother in the latest EA Sports NHL game?
Each team can choose their representative however they want and then the final game would be part of the All-Star weekend.

More realistic than adding actual tournaments/loser-playoffs and it would actually be a way to showcase personalities and grow the sport among younger audiences.

 

[Voight]

I dont think the players would agree to this. They want to win the cup, not some third rate in season trophy.