The state of play in the NHL is in a pretty good place.
Scoring has risen in recent years, and the league’s extraordinary players have taken advantage. It’s not at video game levels like the 1980s or early 1990s, but it’s also not trending in the wrong direction like it was a decade ago.
The best players in the world are able to dominate. Skill is paramount, though size and skill is even better. The 2023-24 season gave us a great regular season of individual performances and a fantastic Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Best-on-best international hockey is coming back. The salary cap is going up again, finally. The Arizona Coyotes no longer play in a college barn — or Arizona. Life is pretty good for the powers that be at the league offices right now.
That doesn’t mean the NHL is perfect. Far from it. In fact, it can be even better.
Enter … well, me. The 2024-25 campaign will be my second covering the Colorado Avalanche and 15th full season writing about the NHL in some day-to-day capacity. I’ve covered four teams as a local beat writer and spent parts of five seasons looking at the league from a national perspective.
What would I do if Commissioner Gary Bettman took a day off and let me have a go at the controls?
I’ve had the privilege of covering Alex Ovechkin, Taylor Hall and Nathan MacKinnon during MVP seasons, and arguably the two best defensemen since Nicklas Lidstrom hung up his skates: Erik Karlsson and Cale Makar. Watching world-class players conjure their magic has admittedly colored my view of how hockey can be played at its zenith, and I think more can be done to help push the game to even greater heights.
We’ve got some ideas at Avalanche Ink HQ about how to improve the NHL product. Some are minor tweaks. Others could seem like big changes. We’ll stay away from the obvious — “market star players better” — and the most thorny.
A change to icing
My biggest personal pet peeve is watching a goalie hug the post while the puck slides by inches away for an icing. It’s even called icing when the puck hits the side of the net millimeters away, but not if the goalie touches it.
Here’s a simple, obvious rule change that would improve game flow: If the puck is cleared into the goalie trapezoid, icing is waived off. Some people don’t like the trapezoid, but I do. And I want to give it further purpose while cutting out some unnecessary stoppages of play.
Add “and-ones”
OK, I lied. My actual biggest pet peeve is when a team takes a penalty and then gives up a goal five seconds later. The penalty is wiped off the board by the goal.
Not in my NHL. The punishment for taking a penalty is playing with one less player. Swapping out the goalie for a skater during a delayed penalty does not do this. There are still six players a side.
If a team scores during a delayed penalty situation, whether it takes five seconds or two minutes … the offending player is still going to the box. This should happen for NHL players doing the “and one” celebration alone.
Two-minute majors, but not all of them
Speaking of penalties, teams should get the full two minutes to score as many times as they want. This rule was only changed because one team in a six-team league was too good.
Here’s a twist though: non-contact fouls will remain a one-and-done situation. Too many men, faceoff violations and the dreaded puck-over-the-glass penalties would all remain a two-minute minor. But all of the contact-related fouls become two-minute majors.
Don’t want to have Tampa Bay or Edmonton light you up for three goals in two minutes? Take fewer penalties. That should be the long-term goal with each of the past two ideas.
Embrace the KHL’s new overtime rule
This commissioner for a day is not a fan of 3-on-3 hockey, but also realizes that horse is long out of the barn. The KHL is experimenting with a new rule this season in its junior league that forces the offensive team to keep the puck on the offensive side of the center-ice red line.
This is a fun idea, but early returns suggest the punishment — the first infraction is a center-ice faceoff, the second is a penalty — might be too stiff. Avalanche Ink HQ likes this innovation a lot — all the reloading and skating the puck backwards is not fun, and it feels like a dump-and-chase move at 3-on-3 could lead to some interesting things.
Here’s the simple tweak: No penalties for a “backcourt violation,” but instead treat it like icing. The other team gets an offensive zone faceoff. Punitive, but not “well, the game is probably over now” levels.
Fix the CHL problem
Speaking of junior leagues, it’s time for the NHL to face the small elephant in the proverbial player development room. It doesn’t need to cater to the Canadian Hockey League anymore.
If the NHL drafts a player from anywhere in the world that isn’t Canada, said prospect can play in the AHL whenever he and the club wants. If the NHL drafts someone from one of Canada’s three major junior leagues (WHL, OHL, QMJHL), said player has only two options until he turns 20 — the NHL or back to juniors.
For a large chunk of NHL history, it desperately needed the CHL to develop the vast majority of its players, in a similar fashion to how the NFL needs college football. Given the rise of European players and more recently, the USHL and the number of Canadians going to college hockey programs, it’s time for the NHL to ask for some exemptions.
We’re not suggesting the NHL should ask to do away with this agreement entirely, but there needs to be a compromise. Calum Ritchie is a great example. He should not have to go back to the OHL after he tore up the league last season if he doesn’t make the Avalanche roster.
Our suggestion is every team gets one exemption per season, but it should also be merit-based so the CHL isn’t just losing 32 players every year. If a player meets certain statistical or award-based criteria, his NHL club should have the option to send him to the AHL.
A pair of jersey upgrades
1. This is stealing an idea from international football because it’s great. Every team that has won the Stanley Cup is allowed to promote it on the jersey, similar to how countries that have won the World Cup have stars above their crest. So that could mean three stars for the Avs or three small replica trophies. How would the Montreal Canadiens do this with 24 championships? We’ll hire a design team to come up with league-approved ideas.
2. The reigning Stanley Cup champions will have a patch with the Cup on it.
Add a play-in tournament
We’ve already addressed this at length. Who cares if it looks like the league is just copying the NBA? It’s a slam dunk, pun intended.
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