I like the idea, but it does seem to kill the excitement for a playoff spot. I guess you just shift that to the midpoint in the season? Scheduling would be difficult but doable. Your biggest hurdle would just be that people hate change.
Seems to me that there are still some playoff races because only 16 of those 20 teams are going to make the playoffs. I think it works from that perspective.
As a hockey concept I love it, but the biggest issue I see is building schedule, particularly in arenas that are shared with NBA teams. Scheduling concerts and other events becomes nearly impossible for that final 20 game stretch.
21, you say? Sounds like it could have some catchy betting slogan and a sponsor? 😆
I like gold drafting like Micah describes so this is similar. At a certain point losing teams can start winning. The players want to win. You might want to compare your idea to gold drafting.
I like the concept, but I’m not exactly comfortable with awarding the number one pick to a middle of the pack team. How do the really bad teams get better, luck? Seems like they could get caught in the perpetual vortex of bad hockey.
Isn't this basically the Swiss model that the Champions League are going to do next year? I think the Scottish Premier League does a version of this too.
I like the idea of the true round-robin for the first 3/4 of the season. It makes travel fair across the board for all teams instead of impacting teams in the West more than the East.
Interesting concept. I like the creativity and originality. I’d actually love to see the league just try it for a year and see how it goes. They won’t do that, of course. Resistance to change is strong in this league, unfortunately. But it would be cool to watch it unfold. Thanks for sharing, Sean!
What if you kept the top 11 from each conference and had home-and-homes within the conference for the final 20. Hard to imagine certain rival pairs getting excited about losing a game or two against each other. This also builds the bad blood up a bit before the playoffs sort of like the covid divisional year.
Then you have the bottom 10 teams doing cross conference for the draft picks.
To me, the biggest problem with this system is that it makes it very difficult for teams that are *legitimately* bad, and not just tanking for one season, to get better.
The teams that finish 28-30 don't have a realistic shot at the top draft pick.
The system you've suggested previously (at least I think you've been one of the proponents of this) where only points earned after mathematical elimination are counted towards the draft race at least gives a handicap in favour of the bottom-feeding teams.
I like the idea, but it does seem to kill the excitement for a playoff spot. I guess you just shift that to the midpoint in the season? Scheduling would be difficult but doable. Your biggest hurdle would just be that people hate change.
Seems to me that there are still some playoff races because only 16 of those 20 teams are going to make the playoffs. I think it works from that perspective.
As a hockey concept I love it, but the biggest issue I see is building schedule, particularly in arenas that are shared with NBA teams. Scheduling concerts and other events becomes nearly impossible for that final 20 game stretch.
I would argue you still have teams set 15 potential dates, so you have those set aside and booked and then build it from there
21, you say? Sounds like it could have some catchy betting slogan and a sponsor? 😆
I like gold drafting like Micah describes so this is similar. At a certain point losing teams can start winning. The players want to win. You might want to compare your idea to gold drafting.
I like gold drafting model. Really do. Just playing around with something similar I guess
I like the concept, but I’m not exactly comfortable with awarding the number one pick to a middle of the pack team. How do the really bad teams get better, luck? Seems like they could get caught in the perpetual vortex of bad hockey.
A bad team could get stuck, but by this concept you actually have more control of getting no 1 than draft lottery in my view.
Isn't this basically the Swiss model that the Champions League are going to do next year? I think the Scottish Premier League does a version of this too.
I like the idea of the true round-robin for the first 3/4 of the season. It makes travel fair across the board for all teams instead of impacting teams in the West more than the East.
Scottish Premier league may have been part of my motivation for this truthfully
Interesting concept. I like the creativity and originality. I’d actually love to see the league just try it for a year and see how it goes. They won’t do that, of course. Resistance to change is strong in this league, unfortunately. But it would be cool to watch it unfold. Thanks for sharing, Sean!
What if you kept the top 11 from each conference and had home-and-homes within the conference for the final 20. Hard to imagine certain rival pairs getting excited about losing a game or two against each other. This also builds the bad blood up a bit before the playoffs sort of like the covid divisional year.
Then you have the bottom 10 teams doing cross conference for the draft picks.
To me, the biggest problem with this system is that it makes it very difficult for teams that are *legitimately* bad, and not just tanking for one season, to get better.
The teams that finish 28-30 don't have a realistic shot at the top draft pick.
The system you've suggested previously (at least I think you've been one of the proponents of this) where only points earned after mathematical elimination are counted towards the draft race at least gives a handicap in favour of the bottom-feeding teams.
But I do like the symmetry of this proposal.