You've been appointed NHL Commissioner in '79 . . .

[Sinter Klaas]

And you have the gift of foresight (I should I say hindsight) knowing what will transpire the next 40+ years. List 3-5 changes that you would make to the game, whether it be a rule that affects game play, franchise/team play, international play or anything of that nature or a change in free agency/roster rules that you think would be needed, would have been better for the league or a rule that was changed that didn't deserve to be.

(FYI, I picked '79 because of the merger of the WHA and that 3 out of the 4 teams joining the league that year would eventually relocate).

Click to read more...

 

[norrisnick]

The DOPS would get some teeth.

Fighting is an ejection and suspension. Lengths grow with repeats.
Hits to head an ejection and suspension. Lengths grow with repeats.
Violent stick fouls an ejection and suspension. Lengths grow with repeats.
Enforce restraint fouls and interference. Open up the game for all and make skating a prerequisite to success.

Rather than embracing the Slap Shot mentality for a couple generations and parading around Don Cherry the league should have been embarrassed and distanced themselves from it.

 

[CharlestownChiefsESC]

Would be looking for a US network tv deal. At that time NBC had the MLB and NFL sundays,CBS had NFL Sundays and the NBA. Id be approaching ABC (miracle on ice coverage) and seeing what they could do. If they took it id be trying to schedule Oilers games in the east and midwest on weekend afternoons in places like Boston,Chicago and Philadelphia knowing that this Gretzky kid might be something. In addition to that the deal for the time would mean exclusive coverage of the finals. The other rounds just weekend games would get national coverage.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Make a deal with this little start up network who just went on the air called ESPN and ensure hockey is the flagship sport they show as they grow

 

[MXD]

Work right away towards some sort of revenue sharing system, or a bigger revenue sharing system if there was already one.

 

[CMitchelli]

- League size limited forever to max 21 teams;
- Except for helmets, equipment stays same, i.e., wood sticks only;
- Music prohibited except for organist;
- Changes to team colors + logos prohibited
(Vancouver allowed one-time change only);

 

[MadLuke]

Make a deal with this little start up network who just went on the air called ESPN and ensure hockey is the flagship sport they show as they grow

I think that where hindsight could pay, that and play internet revolution better would be an other one. Should be easy to have the edge if you are in 1990 the only league that have the faintest idea of how big Internet will be just 10 years later.

My first thought was trying to build the league/nhlpa contract to accommodate more Intl event like the World Cup a more defined every 4 years type of even (if I cannot get the pros in the olympics sooner), I feel player like it, fans like it, casual fans in no traditional market can watch.

Injury fear, stress on schedule can be a thing but relatively low issue vs the gain.

Other aspect would be how to keep hockey alive in Winnipeg-Quebec during a weak dollar/salary creep up pressure phase, if the Coyotes can survive all this time, something must be possible for that window, would that be achieving the salary cap or exchange rate protection earlier if thats what those owner-city-governement needed has a guarantee to build arenas.

 

[GMR]

The DOPS would get some teeth.

Fighting is an ejection and suspension. Lengths grow with repeats.
Hits to head an ejection and suspension. Lengths grow with repeats.
Violent stick fouls an ejection and suspension. Lengths grow with repeats.
Enforce restraint fouls and interference. Open up the game for all and make skating a prerequisite to success.

Rather than embracing the Slap Shot mentality for a couple generations and parading around Don Cherry the league should have been embarrassed and distanced themselves from it.

So basically turn hockey into a soft game, like today?

 

[Stephen]

I'm not sure what the Back to the Future angle would be going back to 1979.

The 1980s were widely regarded as an entertaining, high scoring golden era in hockey full of superstars and still had those classic franchises later lost to relocation. The economic growing pains with exploding salaries, labour strife, loss of small markets, expansion of the Sun Belt, loss of the old heritage arenas, Dead Puck Era and concussion issues, falling behind the NBA wouldn't happen for another 10-15 years.

Are we trying to undo the Bettman era, make the Bettman era come sooner, or turn the NHL into the NBA before the NBA got there first?

 

[MadLuke]

I feel that even with hindsight we would end up doing almost exactly like Bettman for most things, the external force are really strong. Specially if we add the you are trying to keep your job variable to it (i.e. please the group of owner, the biggest one and at least 50%+1 at the same time, year after year).

If we are a for life contract assured, that's a bit different, even if that doing the same mostly could hold with the rest of the externals force (players, tv channels, government, cities, etc...).

Banning fighting, for example, not sure it past with the owners or the players.

 

[Davenport]

Outlaw sticks being anything but wooden (with the new sticks came the Uniroyal Man look for goalies).
No regular season overtime or shootouts.
Delay of Game penalty for leaving your feet to block a shot.

 

[McGarnagle]

1. Address player safety issues (particularly head trauma - institute rule 48 back then)
2. Negotiate a network TV deal through the 80s - dumbest thing the NHL did was be completely off network TV in America from 1980 to 1995. I don't care if SportsChannel America offers a little more money than ABC or CBS, you need brand exposure to build your market
3. Institute revenue sharing and an emergency escrow to keep the smaller market teams from having to move when the economy goes south in the 90s
4. Expose Eagleson's fraud against the union a lot earlier
5. Hold a dispersal draft for European players' rights separate from the amateur entry draft and negotiate with the Soviet federation and the IIHF to provide for a smoother transition of Eastern Bloc players into North America - Or consider them all international free agents like the baseball system where you have a pool of money to sign from.

 

[MXD]

5. Hold a dispersal draft for European players' rights separate from the amateur entry draft and negotiate with the Soviet federation and the IIHF to provide for a smoother transition of Eastern Bloc players into North America - Or consider them all international free agents like the baseball system where you have a pool of money to sign from.

Great idea on paper, but how to recouncile that with, except for rare cases like Miroslav Dvorak (anyone can think of another?), players having to defect to come to NA in the first place?

Unless you were specifically referring to the period past 1990.

 

[McGarnagle]

Great idea on paper, but how to recouncile that with, except for rare cases like Miroslav Dvorak (anyone can think of another?), players having to defect to come to NA in the first place?

Unless you were specifically referring to the period past 1990.

There's where the negotiation comes in to prevent them from having to defect in the first place. Whether it's the NHL providing kickbacks to the Soviet and Czech federations, the players' countries getting a larger cut of their paycheck, or the promise of more best-on-best tournaments (possibly at the Olympics as early as 1984) and touring exhibitions, find a way to get them to release their players.

I find it surprising considering Gorbachev's policies of glasnost how hard it was for European players to come over prior to 1990. Though one of the most frequently cited theses for the collapse of the USSR is how it was largely bureaucratic staleness and inflexibility that left most state ministries unable to adapt to changing economic and geopolitical situations, so I assume that even if Gorbachev was pushing change within the central committee (which received significant pushback in its own right), I'm sure the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation in the mid-80s was still being run by Khrushchev-era bureaucrats who didn't appreciate any change in the winds.

 

[MXD]

There's where the negotiation comes in to prevent them from having to defect in the first place. Whether it's the NHL providing kickbacks to the Soviet and Czech federations, the players' countries getting a larger cut of their paycheck, or the promise of more best-on-best tournaments (possibly at the Olympics as early as 1984) and touring exhibitions, find a way to get them to release their players.

Fair enough. I have strong reservations about how much success this endeavour could possibly have had, but at least the idea is sound.

 

[The Pale King]

Just a warning: I'd definitely let the power go to my head. We're talking about a seriously mixed legacy here. Some of these sentences felt weird to type so I want to go on record as saying this is a hypothetical and purely fictional excercise in hysterical revisionism.

First off, I would for sure bet on games actively and then reinvest that money paying the Soviets to kidnap then-NBA executive Gary Bettman. Queue the 'Scary KGB Carries Off Gary' headlines. It's a bit of a scandal and probably my ultimate downfall but it's worth it in the long run.

I'm definitely going to dig up some dirt on Wirtz and Ballard and blackmail them into selling their franchises earlier.

We're also going to shorten the season to 70 games but have more large outdoor games in markets that can support it like Hartford and Quebec City. I also let the Blues move to Saskatoon in 198-whatever year.

I invite presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to drop the puck at an outdoor pre-season game between the Red Wings and Blues in Sterling Heights, Michigan on Sept. 13th 1988 . He does take some super unflattering photos in full Red Wings gear with pads and everything but I tell him "Michael, under no circumstances can the world see these" and put them into storage in a vault under the NHL offices in Manhattan.

Thus Dukakis never takes the infamous tank photograph and ends up winning the 1988 election. Neither Bush becomes president but they instead they put up big money for a Dallas South Stars NHL franchise.

I probably try to set up a very poorly organized NHL exhibition game at the recently fallen Berlin Wall. The optics are bad, the Soviets are not impressed and it probably sets NHL-Soviet relations back a couple of seasons. But on the plus side Gary Suter bails head-first into the boards on the shoddy ice and misses a season and a half of games and his hit on Gretzky at the 1991 Canada Cup never happens.

We're definitely going to get a steeper expansion fee from the Yakuza for the Lightning franchise. Ditto for Disney and the Ducks. The Sharks get a break but they have to play in the Cow Palace until 2000. I'm using those expansion funds to keep all the WHA teams in their markets.

John Spano gets to keep the Islanders and run them from Federal prison as long as he never hires Garth Snow and keeps the Fisherman as the primary jersey going forward.

I spend a lot of money trying to Y2K-proof the NHL and am ultimately ousted early in the 1999 season. I settle into a comfortable retirement whilst campaigning for my own induction into the HHOF and die peacefully in upstate New York sometime during the 2004-05 season (Senators win the Cup that year) before any of my crimes or corruption come to light.

 

[The Panther]

One of the keys for me would be getting rid of (the otherwise entertaining) Bruce McNall. That would mean (a) no Gretzky trade to Los Angeles and (b) no Gary Bettman.

But seriously, I think most of the things---good and bad---that have happened in the modern era are mostly unavoidable.

But I would like the NHL expansion to have stopped at max. 24 teams. Would be so much better hockey today if so, and no silly Arizona franchises.

 

[Jumptheshark]

As a child of the 70's and I remember the time very well

1) Get rid of the center line early
2) One fight you get tossed(we all enjoyed the fights--but we now know that damage done)
3) Bring in the lotto in 79 and have the rule you can only win the lotto once every 5 years.
4) better vetting of owners
5) Have either the hard cap or lux tax from 79

 

[DaveG]

1. Address player safety issues (particularly head trauma - institute rule 48 back then)
2. Negotiate a network TV deal through the 80s - dumbest thing the NHL did was be completely off network TV in America from 1980 to 1995. I don't care if SportsChannel America offers a little more money than ABC or CBS, you need brand exposure to build your market
3. Institute revenue sharing and an emergency escrow to keep the smaller market teams from having to move when the economy goes south in the 90s
4. Expose Eagleson's fraud against the union a lot earlier
5. Hold a dispersal draft for European players' rights separate from the amateur entry draft and negotiate with the Soviet federation and the IIHF to provide for a smoother transition of Eastern Bloc players into North America - Or consider them all international free agents like the baseball system where you have a pool of money to sign from.

With you just about entirely. Point 3 is the tricky one, since a large part of the issue is local politics that's the main driving force between each one of the major moves in the 90s. I can't speak for the situations in Atlanta 1.0 or Colorado when they relocated, but the situations in Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford probably still play out as they did without some local political intervention to build the needed arenas. Of course, the question then is would the local political situation be more open to keeping their teams around with more financially stable franchises? Hartford still probably leaves since Rowland was a complete dumb f*** that prioritized trying to bring the Patriots to town rather than keep the pro team the state actually had, but is the government in QC or Winnipeg another matter?

 

[kaiser matias]

There's where the negotiation comes in to prevent them from having to defect in the first place. Whether it's the NHL providing kickbacks to the Soviet and Czech federations, the players' countries getting a larger cut of their paycheck, or the promise of more best-on-best tournaments (possibly at the Olympics as early as 1984) and touring exhibitions, find a way to get them to release their players.

I find it surprising considering Gorbachev's policies of glasnost how hard it was for European players to come over prior to 1990. Though one of the most frequently cited theses for the collapse of the USSR is how it was largely bureaucratic staleness and inflexibility that left most state ministries unable to adapt to changing economic and geopolitical situations, so I assume that even if Gorbachev was pushing change within the central committee (which received significant pushback in its own right), I'm sure the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation in the mid-80s was still being run by Khrushchev-era bureaucrats who didn't appreciate any change in the winds.

The issue for the Soviets at least is they were very slow to come to the idea of selling players abroad until very late. Even in soccer, the other sport that saw a strong exodus of quality players, the Soviets didn't really get going until the same time they started dealing with the NHL. Sovintersport, the agency that was created to regulate international transfers (read: collect hard currency for athletes) was only created in 1987. So unless we can get a reformer like Gorbachev in power earlier than 1985 that is not likely to happen (the best case may have been in 1982 when Brezhnev died, but a 51-year-old Gorbachev who had only been in the Politburo for a year would not have stood a chance against the geriatrics still clinging to power; he had enough trouble when he took over as is).

To answer the question more generally: it's already been said but is worth stating again: get a national US TV deal. Ridiculous Gretzky and the highest-scoring era in history were not broadcast on national TV in America. It would also go against the NHL's best interests, but finding a way to out Eagleson at the NHLPA and getting the labour strife sorted out when the other 3 major leagues did would also better serve the sport in the long run.

 

[The Pale King]

Just a warning: I'd definitely let the power go to my head. We're talking about a seriously mixed legacy here. Some of these sentences felt weird to type so I want to go on record as saying this is a hypothetical and purely fictional excercise in hysterical revisionism.

First off, I would for sure bet on games actively and then reinvest that money paying the Soviets to kidnap then-NBA executive Gary Bettman. Queue the 'Scary KGB Carries Off Gary' headlines. It's a bit of a scandal and probably my ultimate downfall but it's worth it in the long run.

I'm definitely going to dig up some dirt on Wirtz and Ballard and blackmail them into selling their franchises earlier.

We're also going to shorten the season to 70 games but have more large outdoor games in markets that can support it like Hartford and Quebec City. I also let the Blues move to Saskatoon in 198-whatever year.

I invite presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to drop the puck at an outdoor pre-season game between the Red Wings and Blues in Sterling Heights, Michigan on Sept. 13th 1988 . He does take some super unflattering photos in full Red Wings gear with pads and everything but I tell him "Michael, under no circumstances can the world see these" and put them into storage in a vault under the NHL offices in Manhattan.

Thus Dukakis never takes the infamous tank photograph and ends up winning the 1988 election. Neither Bush becomes president but they instead they put up big money for a Dallas South Stars NHL franchise.

I probably try to set up a very poorly organized NHL exhibition game at the recently fallen Berlin Wall. The optics are bad, the Soviets are not impressed and it probably sets NHL-Soviet relations back a couple of seasons. But on the plus side Gary Suter bails head-first into the boards on the shoddy ice and misses a season and a half of games and his hit on Gretzky at the 1991 Canada Cup never happens.

We're definitely going to get a steeper expansion fee from the Yakuza for the Lightning franchise. Ditto for Disney and the Ducks. The Sharks get a break but they have to play in the Cow Palace until 2000. I'm using those expansion funds to keep all the WHA teams in their markets.

John Spano gets to keep the Islanders and run them from Federal prison as long as he never hires Mike Milbury and keeps the Fisherman as the primary jersey going forward.

I spend a lot of money trying to Y2K-proof the NHL and am ultimately ousted early in the 1999 season. I settle into a comfortable retirement whilst campaigning for my own induction into the HHOF and die peacefully in upstate New York sometime during the 2004-05 season (Senators win the Cup that year) before any of my crimes or corruption come to light.

 

[Kevinsane]

No uniform or logo changes. Get it right the first time. You can’t manufacture iconic.

There will ALWAYS be a team in Quebec City.

Another team in the GTA.

Only wooden sticks.

No ads on the ice surface.

Schedule starts no later than Sept 15th of every year.

No licensing fees for equipment. Players and goalies wear whatever makes them feel safest and most comfortable.

Expose and prosecute Alan Eagleson.

 

[Sinter Klaas]

1) Cap the league at 26 teams. Over expansion in markets where hockey never flourished has had mixed results.

2) Related to #1 keep franchises from relocating. The number of teams that moved as a result of the weak Canadian dollar or from owner's looking to cut move to more lucrative markets was a black eye on the league starting in the mid 1990's. Institute revenue sharing/dollar exchange protections at an earlier instance and safety nets to keep small market franchises.

3) Maybe the biggest in terms of the style of play- the game became unwatchable circa 1997. Crackdown on obstruction. The rules implemented in 2005 came 8 years too late at the expense of several boring years of hockey play and stunted any potential growth the sport had at the height of its popularity in the early 1990's.

4) Related to #3 - crackdown on goaltender equipment. Don't let them look like linebackers with all their lumbering equipment. Find a way to protect them without the expense of having them look Ultron. If no compromise couldn't be reach, then simply adjust the nets to make them 1/4 inch wider on each side.

 

[Moose Head]

Gretzky would have been in the draft and declare his personal services contract null and void for NHL purposes.

If Pocklington doesn’t like it, Calgary gets an expansion team and get involved in the WHA dispersal draft and Pocklington gets nothing.

A year later the Flames move to Edmonton

 

[crobro]

79-80 change the name of the Hart trophy to the Gordie Howe Trophy