CFN – So we’ve survived the NHL lock out of 2012/13 and as I peruse rosters gearing up to writing about our short season this year it strikes me more and more that 30 teams is far too many for the NHL.
Could it be time to bring the NHL down to a more reasonable 24 teams and start a sister league in Europe for buy the KHL and turn it into a pan European league?
Will contraction improve the quality of the teams and play on the ice?
Do Russian players or foreign players have as much marketing appeal here than closer to their homes? Right now looking over most NHL rosters you see a top six forward corp which essentially means that parity, which is good, means that you can’t build a full squad of better quality.
Take out six teams and all of the sudden team quality improves. And yes while moving some players to a European league would hurt the NHL product it would improve the European product immensely.
Of course the biggest pay off would be the champions of both leagues ultimately playing against each other for a new Super Cup! You could even have the All Star game decide home ice advantage of the Super Cup which would give the game some meaning World Wide as well as bragging rights.
I know that the NHL isn’t known for creativity or upping the ante, but are fans really that excited about 4th liners anymore who generally are fill ins or older players hanging on to the NHL salary? Is the product as it is now as good as it can be? Can it grow in this manner. And for the lunatics that talk of expanding the NHL more than the current 30 teams are they simply killing the goose for the sake of some nice expansion fees?
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Hockey??? What’s that? It should be called Hooky.