Rule Changes

[dhsux]

Nothing much new beyond whats been discussed but this does a decent job clarifying things:

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/461 ... cap-change

[STL fan in MN]

This article does an ok job of hitting the highlights but leaves out some key details IMO.

•The outlawing of deferred compensation in player contracts, which will go into effect on Oct. 7.

•The relaxation of player dress codes.

•The ability for players to endorse "wine and spirits."

•The prohibition of "double salary retention" in trades. Double retention had become commonplace at the NHL trade deadline, with teams retaining part of a player's salary between trading him to another team that retained another percentage of the contract before that player was then sent to his new club.

The missing detail for the double retention piece of it is that a 2nd retention will now have to wait 75 regular season days after the first retention. So the 2nd retention isn’t completely outlawed now but the practice of two retentions on the same day to cut a player’s cap hit by 75% is no more.

Also, the NHL announced that even though next season will expand to 84 games, it’ll start in mid-September and the Cup will be awarded by mid-June. This is a welcome change IMO. It’ll shorten this next offseason by a couple weeks but I’ve long thought the season went way too far into summer and ended way too close to the draft and when contracts end (June 30th). This will give teams a couple weeks to take care of business before the calendar rolls to the next season.

[Frank Barone]

This article does an ok job of hitting the highlights but leaves out some key details IMO.

•The outlawing of deferred compensation in player contracts, which will go into effect on Oct. 7.

•The relaxation of player dress codes.

•The ability for players to endorse "wine and spirits."

•The prohibition of "double salary retention" in trades. Double retention had become commonplace at the NHL trade deadline, with teams retaining part of a player's salary between trading him to another team that retained another percentage of the contract before that player was then sent to his new club.

The missing detail for the double retention piece of it is that a 2nd retention will now have to wait 75 regular season days after the first retention. So the 2nd retention isn’t completely outlawed now but the practice of two retentions on the same day to cut a player’s cap hit by 75% is no more.

Also, the NHL announced that even though next season will expand to 84 games, it’ll start in mid-September and the Cup will be awarded by mid-June. This is a welcome change IMO. It’ll shorten this next offseason by a couple weeks but I’ve long thought the season went way too far into summer and ended way too close to the draft and when contracts end (June 30th). This will give teams a couple weeks to take care of business before the calendar rolls to the next season.

I'm all for beginning the season earlier, for no other reason than shortening the NHL dead zone period for fans between July 15 and September 15.

[HighStick]

I honestly don't see the point of changing the season to 84 games. I'm all for more hockey but it just seems like a cash grab overall. They could adjust the season time frame to begin and end whenever they wanted. I don't get adding 2 official games just to say the season will start 2 games earlier now??? Why change that? Was someone complaining that they just didn't play enough? Was 6 preseason games really too many? Why 2 games? I can't see the benefit to playing 84 games over 82.

[seattleblue]

Well they were playing 90 games, 8 preseason + 82 games now it's going to be 6 + 84. not a crazy amount of difference. They did it for two years then reverted back 30 years or so ago. We'll see if they keep it.

Double retention ending is a big deal for the deadline, and starting in mid September is going to take getting used to

[STL fan in MN]

I honestly don't see the point of changing the season to 84 games. I'm all for more hockey but it just seems like a cash grab overall. They could adjust the season time frame to begin and end whenever they wanted. I don't get adding 2 official games just to say the season will start 2 games earlier now??? Why change that? Was someone complaining that they just didn't play enough? Was 6 preseason games really too many? Why 2 games? I can't see the benefit to playing 84 games over 82.

84 games simply makes for a more even calendar than 82 for a 32 team league. With 82 games, there are 2 divisional opponents you’ll only play 3 times over the season with all the others being 4. With 84, you’ll play all divisional opponents 4x/season. For example, this season the Blues will only visit the Wild once all season and not until March. For Blues fans that happen to live in Minnesota (admittedly, likely a small group of people but a group that includes me), this sucks as they will only get to see the Blues once this season. That’ll be remedied under a 84 game schedule.

[somni]

This article does an ok job of hitting the highlights but leaves out some key details IMO.

•The outlawing of deferred compensation in player contracts, which will go into effect on Oct. 7.

•The relaxation of player dress codes.

•The ability for players to endorse "wine and spirits."

•The prohibition of "double salary retention" in trades. Double retention had become commonplace at the NHL trade deadline, with teams retaining part of a player's salary between trading him to another team that retained another percentage of the contract before that player was then sent to his new club.

The missing detail for the double retention piece of it is that a 2nd retention will now have to wait 75 regular season days after the first retention. So the 2nd retention isn’t completely outlawed now but the practice of two retentions on the same day to cut a player’s cap hit by 75% is no more.

Also, the NHL announced that even though next season will expand to 84 games, it’ll start in mid-September and the Cup will be awarded by mid-June. This is a welcome change IMO. It’ll shorten this next offseason by a couple weeks but I’ve long thought the season went way too far into summer and ended way too close to the draft and when contracts end (June 30th). This will give teams a couple weeks to take care of business before the calendar rolls to the next season.

I'm all for beginning the season earlier, for no other reason than shortening the NHL dead zone period for fans between July 15 and September 15.

I'm all for the season to start earlier. It will shorten the season of troll posts (hopefully) and get us back to talking hockey.

[Blues Dave]

I gotta admit, I would be much more seriously looking at any rule changes that concern on the ice stuff with players, refs, or stuff that affects the game as it's being played. I'm older and it's just easier and more fun for me. But thank you guys for monitoring all the other stuff.

[bluetunehead]

I honestly don't see the point of changing the season to 84 games. I'm all for more hockey but it just seems like a cash grab overall. They could adjust the season time frame to begin and end whenever they wanted. I don't get adding 2 official games just to say the season will start 2 games earlier now??? Why change that? Was someone complaining that they just didn't play enough? Was 6 preseason games really too many? Why 2 games? I can't see the benefit to playing 84 games over 82.

The rationale for 84 is that it can make a more even schedule with 32 teams. For the Blues...

2 games against Eastern Conference teams = 32 games
3 games against Pacific Division teams = 24 games
4 games against Central Division teams = 28 games

[Inglewood Jack]

I honestly don't see the point of changing the season to 84 games. I'm all for more hockey but it just seems like a cash grab overall. They could adjust the season time frame to begin and end whenever they wanted. I don't get adding 2 official games just to say the season will start 2 games earlier now??? Why change that? Was someone complaining that they just didn't play enough? Was 6 preseason games really too many? Why 2 games? I can't see the benefit to playing 84 games over 82.

The rationale for 84 is that it can make a more even schedule with 32 teams. For the Blues...

2 games against Eastern Conference teams = 32 games
3 games against Pacific Division teams = 24 games
4 games against Central Division teams = 28 games

Nice breakdown. Now lets have expansion again...

[Boomac]

I could have swore I read an article that stated it would be 84 games on years without the Olympics or 4 nations and 80 games during the years those tournaments are held. I'm not seeing anything confirming that.

Can anybody clarify, please?

[STL fan in MN]

I could have swore I read an article that stated it would be 84 games on years without the Olympics or 4 nations and 80 games during the years those tournaments are held. I'm not seeing anything confirming that.

Can anybody clarify, please?

Never seen that anywhere.

[STL fan in MN]

This article does an ok job of hitting the highlights but leaves out some key details IMO.

•The outlawing of deferred compensation in player contracts, which will go into effect on Oct. 7.

•The relaxation of player dress codes.

•The ability for players to endorse "wine and spirits."

•The prohibition of "double salary retention" in trades. Double retention had become commonplace at the NHL trade deadline, with teams retaining part of a player's salary between trading him to another team that retained another percentage of the contract before that player was then sent to his new club.

The missing detail for the double retention piece of it is that a 2nd retention will now have to wait 75 regular season days after the first retention. So the 2nd retention isn’t completely outlawed now but the practice of two retentions on the same day to cut a player’s cap hit by 75% is no more.

Also, the NHL announced that even though next season will expand to 84 games, it’ll start in mid-September and the Cup will be awarded by mid-June. This is a welcome change IMO. It’ll shorten this next offseason by a couple weeks but I’ve long thought the season went way too far into summer and ended way too close to the draft and when contracts end (June 30th). This will give teams a couple weeks to take care of business before the calendar rolls to the next season.

I'm all for beginning the season earlier, for no other reason than shortening the NHL dead zone period for fans between July 15 and September 15.

Agreed. The time between the Cup being awarded the draft won’t feel so rushed and then the dead season after free agent frenzy dies down will be a little less. Other than the 1 adjustment year, the actual offseason will stay the same length, just moved up by a couple weeks.

A minor benefit of the season ending sooner is that more players will now be eligible for the World Championships as well. Those usually get started around when the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs are going on. Moving the calendar up by a couple weeks could make that tournament slightly better by making a few more “name” players available for it.

[MikoTython]

What is the deal w/ the double retention restriction ? Knowing nothing about it, it would seem on the surface to make player movement more fluid, the rule change less so - there must be some demand or utility for this change, but what that is eludes me.

[dhsux]

I honestly don't see the point of changing the season to 84 games. I'm all for more hockey but it just seems like a cash grab overall. They could adjust the season time frame to begin and end whenever they wanted. I don't get adding 2 official games just to say the season will start 2 games earlier now??? Why change that? Was someone complaining that they just didn't play enough? Was 6 preseason games really too many? Why 2 games? I can't see the benefit to playing 84 games over 82.

84 games simply makes for a more even calendar than 82 for a 32 team league. With 82 games, there are 2 divisional opponents you’ll only play 3 times over the season with all the others being 4. With 84, you’ll play all divisional opponents 4x/season. For example, this season the Blues will only visit the Wild once all season and not until March. For Blues fans that happen to live in Minnesota (admittedly, likely a small group of people but a group that includes me), this sucks as they will only get to see the Blues once this season. That’ll be remedied under a 84 game schedule.

Thanks for that...It's always been a gripe of mine and I'm glad those two extra games are meaningful.

[Old_Goat]

I honestly don't see the point of changing the season to 84 games. I'm all for more hockey but it just seems like a cash grab overall. They could adjust the season time frame to begin and end whenever they wanted. I don't get adding 2 official games just to say the season will start 2 games earlier now??? Why change that? Was someone complaining that they just didn't play enough? Was 6 preseason games really too many? Why 2 games? I can't see the benefit to playing 84 games over 82.

I suppose since unlike the other major pro sports, the NHL relies on a greater percentage of its overall revenue from ticket sales and concessions in the arena rather than broadcasts? With a longer season and being a very physically demanding game, the players welcome the long winter break for the non-league tournaments. And in these modern days they make enough mooney to work out 12-months a year, without having to augment a summer job. So, training camp can be shorter to just final tweak rosters and work new faces on some line rushes in practice.
I don't mind it starting earlier and paying, or them being paid to play real games. But they need to figure out how to end the playoffs earlier in the Summer. Shorten the off-days between games in a series. Obviously, they want to get as many games on TV at that time as possible for whatever broadcast revenue they possibly can, so one at a time...but again. Fewer continue to watch anyway, and it probably picks back up for the final. But at that point there's one game at a time, so just have one off day for travel.