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Old 09-19-2020, 07:56 PM   #1
Crown Royal
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Default A detailed idea regarding getting the NHL back to playing Oct-Jun for 2023-24

This is new for me, starting a thread that is. This will also be quite a long post, I will format best I can to make it easy to read. Please bare with me....... or is it bear?

So, as we all have heard the NHL doesn't want to play a reduced schedule. They want to play a complete 82 game schedule and full playoffs for the 2020-21 season, I think that if this is their view on next season it is fair to assume this will be their view in subsequent seasons too.

We've heard rumblings and talk of a condensed schedule, but we have seen how it could work, that is what this idea is. A 3 year plan to get the NHL back to normal.

For all 3 years, the plan is to have a 165-167 day regular season, rather than the approximate 200 days a normal season is. This will be achieved by eliminating the bye-week, the all-star break and scheduling teams to play approximately every other day.

Here goes nothing....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Year 1: 2020-2021 Season

Temporary divisional re-alignment and a divisional schedule
With the likelihood of the border still being closed, I am proposing 4 new divisions and a schedule with only intra-divisional play. The US divisions could be adjusted, as I don't think there is an ideal geographical way to split them into 3 divisions of 8.

Canadian Division
Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets
Western Division
Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Vegas Golden Knights
Central Division
Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues
Eastern Division
Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals
Canadian Division Schedule
14 games vs. 4 teams
13 games vs. 2 teams
American Divisions Schedule
12 games vs. 5 teams
11 games vs. 2 teams
Playoff Format
Round One (Division Semi-Final): 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3 in each division
Round Two (Division Final): 2 remaining teams in each division
Round Three (Stanley Cup Semi-Final): Remaining teams are reseeded, with 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3
Stanley Cup Finals: Final 2 teams
Important Dates
  • Regular Season starts January 2, 2021
  • Regular season ends June 15, 2021
  • Playoffs start June 18, 3021
  • Playoffs last potential end date, August 18, 2021
  • Expansion Draft, September 3, 2021
  • Entry Draft, September 10/11, 2021
  • Free Agency, September 15, 2021

Year 2: 2021-2022 Season

Divisional re-alignment and a divisional schedule
Divisions return to normal, but with the Seattle Kraken joining the Pacific Division, the Arizona Coyotes move to the Central Division. The schedule will only consist of intra-conference games.

Schedule
6 games vs own division
5 games against other division in own conference
Playoff Format
Returns to current playoff format
Important Dates
  • Regular Season starts December 1, 2021
  • Regular season ends May 16, 2022
  • Playoffs start May 19, 2022
  • Playoffs last potential end date, July 19, 2022
  • Entry Draft, July 22/23, 2022
  • Free Agency, August 1st, 2022

Year 3: 2022-2023 Season

Divisional re-alignment and a divisional schedule
Same as 2021-22

Schedule
6 games vs own division
5 games against other division in own conference
Playoff Format
Current playoff format
Important Dates
  • Regular Season starts November 1, 2022
  • Regular season ends April 16, 2023
  • Playoffs start April 19, 2023
  • Playoffs last potential end date, June 19, 2023
  • Entry Draft, June 23/24, 2023
  • Free Agency, July 1st, 2023

Year 4: 2023-2024 Season - A return to normal
Schedule
Return to 84 game schedule
4 games vs own division
3 games vs other division in conference
2 games vs other conference
Playoff Format
Return to Conference playoff 1 vs 8 format, re-seeding each round
Division winners guaranteed a top 4 seed in conference
Important Dates
Return to normal
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Old 09-19-2020, 08:03 PM   #2
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This is new for me, starting a thread that is. This will also be quite a long post, I will format best I can to make it easy to read. Please bare with me....... or is it bear?
Unless you're asking us to get naked before reading the thread, it's "bear with me".
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Old 09-19-2020, 08:17 PM   #3
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Unless you're asking us to get naked before reading the thread, it's "bear with me".
thank you, it's the one thing I have never been sure of. But if you want to get bucked ass nekkid, more power to you homie
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Old 09-19-2020, 08:43 PM   #4
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From a players perspective I think it will be really tough to return to the regular season without playing a shortened season or two. Any sort of scheme for a condensed season will require a huge sacrifice from players such as more back to back games, less breaks and rest or potentially more time away from their homes and family. For the sake of player safety, well being and sanity the NHL needs to accept that a shortened season is going to have to occur at some point.
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Old 09-19-2020, 08:57 PM   #5
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From a players perspective I think it will be really tough to return to the regular season without playing a shortened season or two. Any sort of scheme for a condensed season will require a huge sacrifice from players such as more back to back games, less breaks and rest or potentially more time away from their homes and family. For the sake of player safety, well being and sanity the NHL needs to accept that a shortened season is going to have to occur at some point.
I had an idea that could help a bit. I think they should allow NHL teams to have a 4 man taxi-squad that is up with the big club, but doesn't count against the cap.
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Old 09-19-2020, 09:01 PM   #6
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I had an idea that could help a bit. I think they should allow NHL teams to have a 4 man taxi-squad that is up with the big club, but doesn't count against the cap.
The challenge with that is you can hide bad cap players in that group. Who decides whether you are hiding cap or you genuinely demoted a player?

Let's say Pelletier has a good camp. The Flames could have him 'make the team' and have Lucic be demoted to the taxi squad. Suddenly the cap isn't a problem any more.
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Old 09-19-2020, 09:02 PM   #7
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One way around that issue would be to designate the 4 lowest cap hits off the books, regardless of which players actually dress.
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Old 09-19-2020, 09:04 PM   #8
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One way around that issue would be to designate the 4 lowest cap hits off the books, regardless of which players actually dress.
That could work, 2 lowest D and 2 lowest F
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Old 09-19-2020, 09:07 PM   #9
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That could work, 2 lowest D and 2 lowest F
but that way, you could still hide contracts. Let's say you have 7 expensive Dmen. You could have 4 forwards in your taxi squad, but 2 defense salaries would get cut off (thus circumventing the cap).

The only way to do it would be to say your 14 largest forward contracts, 7 largest D contracts, and 2 goalie contracts count for the cap, regardless of who dresses.
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Old 09-19-2020, 09:12 PM   #10
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but that way, you could still hide contracts. Let's say you have 7 expensive Dmen. You could have 4 forwards in your taxi squad, but 2 defense salaries would get cut off (thus circumventing the cap).

The only way to do it would be to say your 14 largest forward contracts, 7 largest D contracts, and 2 goalie contracts count for the cap, regardless of who dresses.
Fair point. and your second paragraph more or less is what I was intending.
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Old 09-19-2020, 09:12 PM   #11
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This is a really interesting post. I love this type of speculation.

My own thoughts are that the NHL is going to want to get back on track as quick as possible. There's a few factors to consider:

(1) I don't see an appetite for the NHL to continue past July 23 due to the Olympics. NBC will be using all their channels for the Olympics so it's probably a non-starter for them. The NHL Draft would then probably need to be in the July 18-22 range followed shortly by free agency so the latest the Cup Finals could go would be July 12-16.

(2) Another wrinkle to the 21-22 season is that the NHL has committed to the players in the new CBA that it will go to the Olympics. Unless the players agree to not go now, that's going to be part of the reality. Plus, with it being China and the NHL wanting to find new revenue, I think the NHL wants to go just as badly as the players anyway

(3) With Edmonton hosting the World Juniors and the team camps from December 10 or so until January 6, that might give you a decent idea of when the NHL actually thinks camps are starting next season. My guess is, camps will start right after New Years, maybe an exhibition game or two and the season starts somewhere around January 15-20. As we all remember, a 48-game season starting around that time (94-95; 12-13) has the regular season end by the end of April and playoffs end of June. I think you could probably squeeze 10-12 more games in to make the timeline the NHL needs there, so a 60-game season starting mid-January maybe?

A shorter season benefits the owners because they already promised the players max 20% escrow. Assuming fans will be able to start attending in February or March, that means not a whole lot of games to empty arenas.

(4) For realignment, I think the NHL will look for as little disruption as possible. They'll have an all-Canadian division, keep the Metro Division the same and then move three teams from the Central Division to each of the other two divisions.

Maybe something like this:

Pacific Division

Los Angeles, Anaheim, Arizona, Vegas, San Jose, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota

Atlantic Division

Florida, Tampa Bay, Boston, Detroit, Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville

Then I could see all four divisions playing only games within their division and the first two rounds of the playoffs also being only within your division partially to limit risk but also for fairness since the Canadian teams will have to do it that way.
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Old 09-20-2020, 02:43 AM   #12
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Great post SCH, thank you for this information.

I also think we should have shorter seasons. An Olympic break, not starting until maybe February and full seasons would make it so it will take closer to 2025-26 before going back to a normal format as I don't think you can safely condense the schedule any more than I suggested.

Unless perhaps the NHL plans to make 2020-21 a full season, then shorten the 2021-22 season due to the Olympics, as this is a rare opportunity for them to set things up so the Olympics don't get in the way of an NHL season. Make the 2021-22 season 48 games, start it in March, ending the regular season at the end of May and playoffs at the end of July. Then with having a short 2021-22 season, they could start the 2022-23 season in mid-October and a condensed schedule would have them back to normal.



Frankly, if it were up to me I would definitely go with a reduced schedule, in an attempt to make it permanent. I would also do a post-expansion realignment with 8 divisions and 4 conferences.

CGY, EDM, SEA, VAN
AHM, LAK, SJS, VGK

ARZ, COL, DAL, NSH
CHI, MIN, STL, WPG

CAR, FLA, TBL, WSH
NJD, NYI, NYR, PHI

BUF, CBJ, DET, TOR
BOS, MTL, OTT, PGH

Although these divisions would look much better if we could just move the Panthers to Houston and swap Nashville with Houston

Then I'd go with a 72 game schedule, 4 games vs your own division, 3 games against the other division in your conference and 2 against every other division. Top 2 teams from each division make the playoffs, have a divisional round, then conference round, then seed for the SC Semi-Finals.

Actually that is more of a hybrid of what the NHL would accept and I would do. I don't personally think it is important to have every team play each other at least twice.
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Old 09-20-2020, 09:10 AM   #13
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The NHL was adamant about finishing the reg season before these playoffs...until they weren’t. Their current position on 82 games is no different.


My greatest hope with a 32 team league would be a 76 game regular season (7x4, 24x2) with a small play-in game/round (5v4, maybe 6v3). I’d prefer single game, but a Bo3 would be fine if the winner had to travel and play game 1 of real playoffs the next night (1&2 shouldn’t have to sit around for too long).

For the upcoming year, go with a ~48 game lockout style thing and you’re back on track by fall 2021. Id probably look at going even shorter and doing a World Cup cash grab in the fall if Canadian cities are ready to host crowds.


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Old 09-20-2020, 10:10 AM   #14
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A shortened season could be fun to watch. I would assume that player intensity would be quite high because every game would be important for making the playoffs. I think we would see some interesting hockey and storylines with a shortened format.
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Old 09-20-2020, 04:45 PM   #15
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A shortened season could be fun to watch. I would assume that player intensity would be quite high because every game would be important for making the playoffs. I think we would see some interesting hockey and storylines with a shortened format.
The shortened baseball season has been hella fun IMO
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Old 09-21-2020, 08:21 AM   #16
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Another year of summer hockey will kill the NHL

2020-21 ... whenever it starts has to end in March.


The Playoffs have to be completed by June 15 for the Draft to take place July 1

The NHL has to go back to the spirit of the CBA. The CAP is set to 50% of the revenues. 20-21 will have a revenue drop of 40% based on no-ticket sales. Cap has to go down to 50M . The escrow held and kept depending on what the actual revenues realized needs to be set where it actually is enough that the owners don't have to pay out more than 50% of the revenues to players salaries

Last edited by ricardodw; 09-21-2020 at 08:27 AM.
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Old 09-21-2020, 08:35 AM   #17
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Another year of summer hockey will kill the NHL

2020-21 ... whenever it starts has to end in March.
Normal seasons don't even end in March.

A March finish for the regular season in 2020-21 is literally impossible unless they don't even play half the game. There will be hockey in the summer and no it won't "kill the NHL"
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Old 09-21-2020, 09:29 AM   #18
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Originally Posted by ricardodw View Post
Another year of summer hockey will kill the NHL

2020-21 ... whenever it starts has to end in March.


The Playoffs have to be completed by June 15 for the Draft to take place July 1

The NHL has to go back to the spirit of the CBA. The CAP is set to 50% of the revenues. 20-21 will have a revenue drop of 40% based on no-ticket sales. Cap has to go down to 50M . The escrow held and kept depending on what the actual revenues realized needs to be set where it actually is enough that the owners don't have to pay out more than 50% of the revenues to players salaries
The lockout seasons showed that the seasons could end in early May and the Stanley Cup could be played for before July. That tells me that if the NHL is targeting the Olympics as its cutoff, the regular season could go until mid-May.
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Old 09-21-2020, 09:38 AM   #19
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Another year of summer hockey will kill the NHL

2020-21 ... whenever it starts has to end in March.


The Playoffs have to be completed by June 15 for the Draft to take place July 1

The NHL has to go back to the spirit of the CBA. The CAP is set to 50% of the revenues. 20-21 will have a revenue drop of 40% based on no-ticket sales. Cap has to go down to 50M . The escrow held and kept depending on what the actual revenues realized needs to be set where it actually is enough that the owners don't have to pay out more than 50% of the revenues to players salaries
As usual, this is insanity. If you want to kill hockey, cleaving 30M off the cap is a great way to do it.

I actually bet 20-21 has a revenue drop far higher than 40% (unless limited ticket sales are possible at some point). While that sucks for everyone involved, in the big picture, it sucks for everyone equally.

The owners are simply giving the players a loan/advance that they will recover on the back half of the deal.

The players can sort out the internal inequities created from this (hence the 10% delayed escrow - players who retire aren't getting much of that back).

The owners can sort out their issues...that may mean a franchise or two gets sold...I bet we see a number of long rumoured relocations finally come to pass. The timing is perfect - expansion is done for the foreseeable and there are no arenas imminently due for extortion. Bring on the relocation fees.
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Old 09-21-2020, 10:30 AM   #20
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So what teams should expect some sort of level of fans next year? There are a bunch of NFL teams that have had fans the last couple weekends. The cowboys had 20,000 fans apparently. I'm sure some of the USA markets may have fans, unless the NHL decides they can't.
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