NOTE: This is part 1 of a 3-part series.
Make no mistake, the NHL is still the best hockey league in the world. However, there is serious competition, in the form of the new Russian league and, should the IIHF ever get its act together, a European super-league. Although the NHL claims it is doing well, I find it difficult to believe that it had such a rapid turnaround from the lockout. Unless, of course, it's actually the six Canadian teams that are driving the revenue.
What follows is the first part of my proposal to fix the NHL. Let's see where this goes.
Part I: Teams, schedules, rules and salaries
(a) Teams
The NHL has too many teams. That much should be plain to anyone. There is not enough talent to put 4 effective forward lines and 3 effective defense pairs plus injury reserves on each of the 30 teams. The NHL considers itself the best league in the world. At the moment, it is. It has the best players and the best teams. However, the Russian Continental Hockey League (KHL) should be taken serious as a threat. One way to keep the NHL as the premier league in the world is to improve the quality of play. Eliminating teams will do that.
The NHL should have 24 teams. Therefore, six must go. Those six are Nashville, Columbus, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Florida, and Carolina. Of those, Carolina was the hardest choice because it has a legacy of doing well. The other 24 owners would have to pony up about $150 million per team to buy out each owner. The market to buy teams out of their leases was set by the Seattle SuperSonics’ move to Oklahoma City: about $25 million per year remaining. The end cost would be about $1.5 billion. If the league is as healthy as the owners claim, they should recoup the total cost and more within 3 years.
(b) Schedule
The season runs too long. It needs to be reduced to 80, or even 70, games. The reason for this is, again, quality of play. A reduced schedule keeps players fresh and makes the regular season more important. I would suggest starting the season in late September and ending it in March. The playoffs would be in April and May. End the hockey in June madness.
(c) Rules
There are some rules that are needed, like no touch icing. It’s a safety issue at this point. I would also suggest long suspensions and high fines for grievous suspensions. Submit them to the NHLPA for approval and suggestions. For example, a vicious two-handed slash is 15 games for a first offence, 30 for a second, and one year for a third.
Others are more optional. I would eliminate tenths of second because there’s no point in hockey. Perhaps counting up would also be a nice change of pace. I would also introduce harsher punishments for fighting. Get rid of the stupid instigator rule. Who starts the fight is not the problem. Give pugilists a 5 minute major and a 4 minute double minor. Missing nearly 1/3 of the game should be enough of a deterrent for all but the most dedicated fighters. Even though I've been in favor of banning fighting in the past, I don't think that's necessary right now. I do think there should be harsher penalties to prevent teams from employing one-dimensional fighters, though.
(d) Salaries
I admire the NHL for actually implementing a hard salary cap. However, it needs adjustment. The cap itself is fine, but it needs to be made soft-ish. That is, there needs to be some leeway when making trades. There should also be a rule that would allow a team to eat some salary in trades. The floor is the real problem. The salary floor, as it stands, is too high. It needs to be adjusted to be something like 50-55% of the salary cap.
The roster size will be limited to 24 players on the NHL roster.
Damaris Lewis
Julie Henderson
Mavs Dancers
Rare Photos of George Steinbrenner
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Don't forget that since the lockout, Carolina has better attendance numbers than Phoenix, the NY Islanders, and Boston. It would seem to be unwise of the NHL to cut Carolina given that they've been a persistently talented team in a rapidly growing geographic location with an established and growing fan base.
ond11
New York , NY
Total Comments (1)
Thanks for the comment.
There is that, yes: the attendance thing. Carolina was the toughest cut there; I didn't want to cut Phoenix because it would cause imbalance in the conferences (my proposed cuts will impact the conferences in the next 2 parts, whenever I get around to writing them). Perhaps I should re-do those and put Carolina back in.
naxself
Fort Worth , TX
Total Comments (912)
whats your take on Canadian expansion? To hamilton? Back to Quebec City and Winnipeg? 2nd team in Toronto??
WALLYPALOOZA
Victoria, BC
Total Comments (291)
$1.5 Billion, hunh ? Is that U.S. or Canadian ? Let's say for the sake of argument, it's U.S. . That's pocket change, I'm sure, given all the revenue produced by the Canadian franchises . Why don't you expand your scheme: Let just the Canadian owners (and Canadian tax payers if necessary) kick in and buy out all the U.S. franchises . According to your calculations, that might run something like $6 Billion . This money could invigorate the U.S. economy; Americans obviously don't need or deserve hockey as much as our friends north of the border do; and, Canada could then say that they really "own" ice hockey in the western hemisphere, thus restoring the earth's axis to it's proper declination .
I am sorry for the satirical nature of the bit above; but I seem to see one of these damnable pieces every six months on here about how the salvation of the NHL lies in confiscating my local franchise - The 2006 Stanley Cup Champion Hurricanes - and, either, making it disappear or (usually) bestowing it upon someone more deserving than we who, willfully and knowingly, choose to live in the southern U.S. (usually back to Hartford or, alternately, to a lovely Canadian city) . My gut feeling is to invite anyone making such a statement to please go attempt to procreate with yourself .
To exam your statements on their merits is somewhat like reading Bush's treatise explaining the reasons for the Iraq war - 'we'll find large numbers of wmd's, and think of all the cheap oil !' . $1.5 Billion, hunh ? If you think that sounds do-able, I have some investment instruments based on bundled mortgages for sale . I don't know what you are smoking, but I'd like to have some ... just in case McCain gets elected .
Lord Stanley's Mug
Durham , NC
Total Comments (17)
1. What you wrote wasn't satire, it was sarcasm. The crucial difference is that satire moves beyond bitterness while sarcasm doesn't.
2. Re: franchise values: According to Forbes magazine: Tampa is worth $200 million; Carolina is worth $168 million; Nashville is worth $164 million; Florida is worth $163 million; Atlanta is worth $158 million; and Columbus is worth $157 million. Add all that up and you get $1.010 billion. Add in approx. $25 million per lease year remaining in each case and you get something close to $1.5 billion. Satisfied?
3. The salvation of the NHL does not lie in confiscating your team. It lies in reducing the number of teams to 24 and the number of regular season games to ensure that the best quality games are played. You clearly missed that in your righteous indignation, which is too bad.
4. I addressed the Carolina issue in comment #2.
naxself
Fort Worth , TX
Total Comments (912)
I'll have to add that to a later part or else write a post on that entirely. Short version: neither Hamilton nor Winnipeg can support a team, IMO. The best options would be putting teams in Quebec City and Toronto (preferably North York). Any team that those cities get would have to be moved because the NHL should not, under any circumstances, expand.
naxself
Fort Worth , TX
Total Comments (912)
The market will determine the number of teams. The league cannot, as far as I know, force a franchise to close. Fighting is not a problelm. Further efforts to eliminate fighting will increase the number of spearing and other more dangerous responses. If the league wants to expand its fan base then it needs to address the number of low scoring games. For long term hockey fans watching a low scoring game is fine but for a first time or occassional viewer to them it like soccer on ice - nice game but boring. I recommend that the league increases the size of the net and continue to crack down on size of goalie equipment. These measures will stop goalies from dropping to their knees and give shooters more net to shoot at. Another measure to consider, increase the width of the ice surface to the international standard. Todays players are much larger than those of just a decade ago. Increase the amount of ice area and the speed of the game will improve and make it much harder for traps to implement the mind numbing center ice trap. Anyhow, these are my thoughts on the game we all love.
Charles River Man
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