Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 Changes The NHL Should Make When It Returns
It’s been two months since the Toronto Maple Leafs season stopped and who knows when it’ll return.
Although the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t played since March, there have been plenty of discussions about what hockey will look like when it eventually returns.
Describing the life we currently live is nothing but weird. Whether you’re confined to a 500 square foot apartment or mansion on the Bridal Path, everyone has had to adopt and change their lifestyle in one way or another.
Some have adjusted better than others and although it’s easy to get stir-crazy when you’re not able to enjoy some of the things you love, it’s the right thing to do, so that should make the adjustment easier.
Being an NHL player in a time like this would be much weirder than the normal human. A hockey player’s life is all about routine: Wake up, work out, eat, sleep, prepare, play and sleep again.
Every minute is mapped out with a routine or superstition. Not only that, but if the NHL resumes play this year, they’ll most likely be playing in July, which is something no player has ever experienced at an NHL level.
For those players that were battling injuries down the stretch, they’ve been blessed with the work stoppage, as they’ll be at full health when hockey resumes. To counter, there are a number of players given opportunities in the line-up due to those injuries that will unfortunately be out of a job once hockey returns as well.
Regardless, as we adjust our lifestyles throughout this pandemic, so should the NHL. Here are three changes we’d love to see the NHL make.
#1. Changing the Salary Cap Structure
When hockey returns, there are going to be a number of question marks about the salary cap.
With zero dollars in gate revenue generated for the rest of this season, and potentially next season, teams will be losing a ton of money. Although not every team budgets playoff revenue into their business plan, many are dependent on those games to make up a large percentage of their ticket sales for the season.
Playoff gate revenue is much higher than regular season revenue because you can charge much more per ticket and you’re more likely to sell-out the building. With every single team missing out on that gate revenue, hundreds of millions of dollars will be lost.
The only way to help subsidize these costs would be to have players take a pay-cut and you know that’s not going to happen, so what should they do?
The bigger teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs won’t be affected as much since they’re a huge organization, but the small market teams will be. Therefore, the NHL should adopt the ‘Designated Player Rule” from Major League Soccer.
This rule allows a team to pay three players whatever they want, but it only accounts for $612,500 of the salary cap. Therefore, each team in the NHL will be able to continue to pay their three highest players and it doesn’t affect the cap.
For example, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews would only cost $612,500 each against the salary cap, although the Leafs are paying them over $30 million total.
By doing this, maybe the cap falls from $81.5 million to $50 million so that it gives each team the ability to take on cost or shed cost, depending on how badly this pandemic has affected them.
For example, the New Jersey Devils have already started giving out ticket refunds for next year, so they’re losing a ton of money by this work stoppage daily. With the money lost, they’d probably prefer not to pay P.K Subban $9 million per year based on his performance and price-tag.
Typically a team wouldn’t be able to take on a $9 million contract due to salary restrictions, however, a team could now use one of their Designated Player spots to take on Subban’s contract. A team like the New York Rangers, who are more financially stable, could afford to pay Subban’s contract and it would allow New Jersey to get out of a financial jam.
The $50 million is a hypothetical salary cap number but the Designated Player Rule could help the struggling teams shed contracts, and keep spending to a limit in a time of need.
#2. Adjust the Schedule
The Stanley Cup Finals should not take place in June. No matter how much we all love hockey, it’s way too late for the NHL.
As great as it is to walk down Bay Street in shorts en route to a playoff game at Scotiabank Arena, we shouldn’t be doing this past May.
The current NHL regular season runs from October-April, followed by a two month sprint to become Stanley Cup champion. In a perfect world, the NHL regular season should start September 1st and end February 28th. Therefore you’d have 181 days to fit in an 82-game schedule, which is essentially the same as today’s schedule.
Hockey is a cold-climate sport and the Finals should take place when it’s still spring, not summer. This time-slot would also allow the NHL to make more TV advertisement revenue because they have less competition in the market.
The NHL would essentially have a three-to-four week stretch of owning the sports world by having their first round start March 1st. The only major competition with the NHL would be NCAA’s March Madness, but the majority of their games take place in the afternoon. MLB’s season opening and NBA regular season finale would not be as intriguing as playoff hockey as well.
With the NHL changing dates, we would now have a sports calendar from January-June that would allow each sport to a own time-slot, so everyone wins:
- January: NFL Playoffs, NCAA Bowl Games
- February: Super Bowl
- March: Start of NHL Playoffs, NCAA March Madness, MLB Season Opening
- April: Start of NBA Playoffs, The Masters, NFL Draft
- May: NHL Stanley Cup Finals, NHL Draft & Awards
- June: NBA Finals
By not competing directly with the NBA Finals, this would give a bigger spotlight on the NHL and allow them to have their championship at a better time on the calendar.
#3. Better Playoff Structure
Every Toronto Maple Leafs fan probably hates the current playoff structure. If you have to see the Boston Bruins one more time in the first round of the playoffs, you’re going to explode.
The current playoff system is structured so that the majority of teams are aligned against a divisional opponent in the first round. The top three teams in each division make the playoffs with the second and third seeded teams playing each other, while the winner of each division either plays the first or second Wild Card team.
In theory, it makes sense because it makes divisional games more important and heightens rivalries, but it unfortunately eliminates good teams too early.
For example, if one division is stronger than the other, it doesn’t give the better teams an advantage. Last year, the Boston Bruins were the second best team in the Eastern Conference but had to play the fifth best team, Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round.
Although Conference alignment is necessary and important for travel schedules throughout the regular season, it doesn’t mean as much in the playoffs. Every team has a private jet and can get anywhere in under 5 hours.
The NHL should change their format so that the top-eight teams in each conference make the playoffs and then they’re reseeded from there. You may be the eighth-team in the Western Conference, but could end up being the 13th seed in a 16-team playoff system if the Eastern Conference is weaker.
But what about travel like I mentioned before? Well, that’s easy. Follow the AHL’s system and allow the better team to determine whether they want to play a 2-2-1-1-1 or a 2-3-2 Best of 7 series. If the teams are closer in proximity, the normal 2-2-1-1-1 system may work, but if the Florida Panthers have to play the Vancouver Canucks, maybe a 2-3-2 works better.
In today’s system, the regular season doesn’t mean as much and why play 82 games for it not to mean a TON? If you’re the best team in hockey and win the Presidents’ Trophy, you should be rewarded with playing the worst team that makes the playoffs.
If we used this tool for the 2018-19 season, here’s what the playoff match-ups would look like:
- Tampa Bay Lightning (1) vs. Colorado Avalanche (16)
- Calgary Flames (2) vs. Vegas Golden Knights (15)
- Boston Bruins (3) vs. Dallas Stars (14)
- Washington Capitals (4) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (13)
- New York Islanders (5) vs. St. Louis Blues (12)
- San Jose Sharks (6) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (11)
- Toronto Maple Leafs (7) vs. Winnipeg Jets (10)
- Nashville Predators (8) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (9)
These playoff match-ups are awesome. The Lightning versus Avalanche would electric. Leafs would get to have a Canadian opponent for the first time since the early 2000s and we’d get a rematch of the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals with Pittsburgh and Nashville.
How is this not better than our current system?
Next. Auston Matthews' Season Could Have Been Leafs Best. dark
The NHL stoppage should give them the flexibility of being creative and improving their league. Hopefully they listen, but until then, we can only dream.