36 Nhl team possible?

[Canuck88]

I think in the near future the nhl will expand to cities as Houston, Portland in the west?Maybe Quebec City and Hamilton in the east?6 per Division 6 divisions and 2 conferences.10 teams per conference make the playoffs?I think London,England can host outdoor winter classic at Wimbley stadium?Mexico City is number 2.

[matchesmalone]

Lol, I dunno. I think they should sit on 32 for a while and see if all teams can survive. I do like the idea of adding more playoff teams, and cutting back the regular season.

[Canuck88]

To something liike 72 just like AHL?what if cut back to 4 to 6 NHL preseason games and have a team play in 2 neutral sites every year?

[Josh]

I think they'll definitely stay at 32 for a while before looking to expand again. I do like the idea of more oversees regular season games.

[Canuck88]

I think the Nhl needs tweeking?Like 3 on 3 overtime for 10 minutes and the shootout?May I say 4 extra players on the nhl teams?1 goalie 2 forwards. And 1 d

[matchesmalone]

Here's an idea I've been working on based partly on some other ideas I've heard. Trying to solve a whole bunch of different ideas all at once, so I'm overhauling the entire league playoff format. Problems I want to address:
- Tanking. The worst teams still need to be recompensed, in order to promote parity, but it shouldn't be so simple as rewarding the worst teams.
- Someone had the great idea of a mini-playoffs for the bottom ranked teams to decide draft position. But the problem with that is this doesn't necessarily motivate the plays, who might not be around to reap benefits of high picks.
- The regular season is too long.
- When the current 16 team playoff format was introduced there were 21 teams. Almost every team made playoffs, now with 32 teams half the teams will miss. Playoffs are where the money is at, and what the fans want to see. We need less regular season and more playoff-type hockey. I initially thought about all 32 teams making playoffs, but that would lead to some wild mismatches in the first round.

Swedish junior leagues have this system where halfway through the season the league is cut in half, so the top teams play other top teams and bottom teams play other bottom teams

The plan:
- Cut the regular season back to ~65 games.
- The top 20 teams go on to placement round, which is basically just 11 more regular season games, but only involving the top 20 teams.
- The bottom 12 teams go to elimination round. This is an 11 game round robin in which each team plays eachother once. The top four teams from this move on to the round of 24. The draft order of the top twelve is decided by the records of this elimination round robin. But it is not reverse order, the best teams of the bottom twelve get the best picks. This discourages tanking, and actually rewards teams that may have been bad for most of the season, but have improved towards the end. It gives the bottom 12 teams something to play for x2 - a chance to play themselves into the playoffs, and top draft position. This solves the problem from my second bullet point above: rather than playing for draft position, they are actually playing for a chance at playoffs, and draft position is an added bonus.
- The top eight teams at the end of regular season and placement round get a first round bye. The 9-20th ranked teams, plus the four elimination round winners play a 16 team first round. The winners go on to join the top eight for a 16 team playoff as we now know it.

[Canuck88]

Maybe an expansion fee for cities like Hamilton,Houston, Quebec City and Kansas city for 800 to 900 million dollars us dollars?

[Canuck88]

I think in my opinion the NHL should expand like to Hamilton not another Toronto team and they are so close to Toronto area and retain name Bulldogs and get St Johns as AHL affiliate?

[Canuck88]

Please dont forget Atlanta,3rd time with right owner could be good for the NHL?

[Josh]

Here's an idea I've been working on based partly on some other ideas I've heard. Trying to solve a whole bunch of different ideas all at once, so I'm overhauling the entire league playoff format. Problems I want to address:
- Tanking. The worst teams still need to be recompensed, in order to promote parity, but it shouldn't be so simple as rewarding the worst teams.
- Someone had the great idea of a mini-playoffs for the bottom ranked teams to decide draft position. But the problem with that is this doesn't necessarily motivate the plays, who might not be around to reap benefits of high picks.
- The regular season is too long.
- When the current 16 team playoff format was introduced there were 21 teams. Almost every team made playoffs, now with 32 teams half the teams will miss. Playoffs are where the money is at, and what the fans want to see. We need less regular season and more playoff-type hockey. I initially thought about all 32 teams making playoffs, but that would lead to some wild mismatches in the first round.

Swedish junior leagues have this system where halfway through the season the league is cut in half, so the top teams play other top teams and bottom teams play other bottom teams

The plan:
- Cut the regular season back to ~65 games.
- The top 20 teams go on to placement round, which is basically just 11 more regular season games, but only involving the top 20 teams.
- The bottom 12 teams go to elimination round. This is an 11 game round robin in which each team plays eachother once. The top four teams from this move on to the round of 24. The draft order of the top twelve is decided by the records of this elimination round robin. But it is not reverse order, the best teams of the bottom twelve get the best picks. This discourages tanking, and actually rewards teams that may have been bad for most of the season, but have improved towards the end. It gives the bottom 12 teams something to play for x2 - a chance to play themselves into the playoffs, and top draft position. This solves the problem from my second bullet point above: rather than playing for draft position, they are actually playing for a chance at playoffs, and draft position is an added bonus.
- The top eight teams at the end of regular season and placement round get a first round bye. The 9-20th ranked teams, plus the four elimination round winners play a 16 team first round. The winners go on to join the top eight for a 16 team playoff as we now know it.

This is interesting. Would the top 4 teams from the bottom 12 play the top 4 teams from the top 20 as far as playoff seeding is concerned?

[matchesmalone]

Yeah I hadn't given much thought to seeding, but best vs. worst is the right idea. 24 vs. 1 in the first round might not be good but it would be 24 vs 9 or whatever. Reseed every round, as it should be.

[Canuck88]

I have an idea,A change to the age engine and better dfaft players and every year in NHL 21 world championships?