Sochi 2014 - Ideas anyone
by PrairieStew on Aug 27, 2010 8:42 AM PDT
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PrintThis was a big topic at the Hockey Summit.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=331624
The players want to go - and the league sort of wants to be there, but it is a tough call.
What is everyones opinion on issue ? Does it need to be solved ?
A way to perhaps make it more palatable to NHL owners after the jump.
The location of the next Olympics implies a shut down of the NHL for 2 weeks or more if NHL players are going to be there. That length is problematic and probably the biggest issue. The second problem is the punishing of strong NHL teams by having a large number of their players in the Games ( 11 for Detroit in 2002). I think that there is a way to reduce some of that impact by doing two key things, limiting participation from NHL rosters, and staggering a shut down with the American Hockey League.
Step 1 - Inform the IIHF of limited NHL participation. Cap the commitment of each NHL team to 4 roster players and 1 minor league player. This makes 150 players under NHL contract in North America available.
Step 2 - Host a national draft 6 weeks before the Games - say right after the Winter Classic. Allow all participating nations to draft players until either the 150 are selected or all teams pass. European teams might still fill a third to a half of their roster from European clubs, so the 120 NHL players should easily stock the top 8 nations.
Step 3 - Release Olympic drafted players 3-4 days before the Olympics. Shut down the American Hockey League for a period of 10 days.
Step 4 - Allow NHL teams to call up 4 players from the AHL - with a suspension of all waiver requirements.
Step 5 - Continue with NHL divisional games only for the 10 day period of the AHL shutdown. Olympic round robin play overlaps by a week.
Step 6 - Shut down the NHL for 10 days - return AHL players, Olympics conclude.
So the Olympics get the best players, the NHL gets a shorter shutdown, finite participation rates and the marketing opportunity of the Olympics. Even that period of AHL call ups might be interesting as a "future look" for teams as the prospects come up and play in the Show. The AHL also gets a bit of a highlight as after those players return - they become the feature game in North America and maybe a little more exposure - a la the recent national TV deal they have announced.
I would hope also that the Olypmic movement pays for big insuance money to the NHL for the loaning of the assets.
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Creative idea, but completely unfeasable. There isn’t a single owner that would approve of any plan that has the NHL continue playing while its top players are in Sochi. It is all or nothing for the NHL.
And nothing isn’t going to be the final answer. The Olympics is a huge bargaining chip for the NHL on two fronts:
1. The NHLPA wants to go, and will have to give something up to the league on the next CBA negotiation to ensure participation.
2. The NHL wants to be cut into the media rights for the Olympics, which the IOC and IIHF have to submit to. The league would have killed to use Olympic highlights to help promote players and teams but couldn’t because it was not a rights holder.
The league is taking a hard line stance to secure its positioning in these two aspects of negotiation. But NHL players will be in Sochi.
I’m not sure the NHL will be as big on it this time around. In Vancouver you could catch your games latest around midnight to 2 in the morning. In Sochi they’ll be happening in the middle of the night or during the workday.
GOod point though. I mean, “American Hero Ryan Miller led the USA to the silver medal, but in the gold medal game Roberto Luongo got the last laugh. Sabres! Canucks! Next, on Versus”
by red army line on Aug 29, 2010 12:33 PM PDT up reply actions
The NHL is marketed pretty strongly with the stars – so I see your point of the owners hesitating on this plan. It is why I proposed divisional games only during the "callup" period. We see plenty of the Sedins in Calgary, so one less wouldn’t make too big of a difference. People in Philly might be disappointed not to be yelling "Crosby Sucks" during a February game; but it hasn’t stopped Ranger fans in getting on Denis Potvin, even though he’s been retired for nearly 25 years!
I agree it may be a sell job to the owners to convince them to briefly play on without the star players, but it may be the lesser of two evils –reducing the shutdown to just 10 days. I think if marketed properly the interest might be pretty good in those games; imagine the storylines – Canucks without the Sedins, Kesler and Luongo meet come in to Calgary – can the Flames take advantage or will Vancouver’s depth take control. Same could be said with St. Louis verses Detroit and Florida in Washington etc. Those games would be more interesting to me than Canada Latvia or USA- Belarus at 4 in the morning.
I know what I would hate to see is a rushed Olympic tournament – compressed , with no practice time etc.
I think the owners know the benefit of participating in the Olympics. The stellar playoff ratings this spring were largely a result of some (long overdue) big numbers in the Chicago market, but were certainly enhanced by the Olympic tournament.
I agree that the rights promotion should be coordinated better – but that’s IOC for you – it’s their party. The Olympic movement didn’t get to be the success it is without some pretty hard nosed defense of their broadcast and copyrights.
I did a quick tally of NHL players in the last Olympics – assuming Wikipedia is right – just over half of the 276 players on the 12 teams were NHL’ers. So the 120-150 is the right number, and equally spread throughout the league ensures a pretty even competitive balance for the NHL.
Canada 23
USA 23
Sweden 20
Finland 18
Czech 16
Russia 15
Slovakia 12
Germany 7
Switzerland 3
Belarus 2
Norway 1
Latvia 0
TOTAL 140
You may be right though – the owners will use it as a bargaining chip with the players –even though participation probably benefits them as well.
by PrairieStew on Aug 30, 2010 10:21 AM PDT up reply actions
The owners would simply refuse to go to Sochi if they were going to lose their players. The NHL, like the Olympics, is a busines first and foremost. Both businesses sell their product by promoting star athletes and the best playing the best. Take that away and the product suffers. You are charging your customers for a product you can’t give them.
Additionally, such a plan would negatively affect the integrity of the result. Think about the impact this would have had on the NHL if in play this past year. Focusing specifically on the Sharks, they would be without their entire top line. The olympics would weaken them far more than their opponents. This would both negatively impact their chances of finishing as the top seed, and give their division rivals the advantage of facing a weaker opponent than other conference teams would. In a format where conference rank determines playoff spots, the odds are good that such a plan would directly alter the final standings, chaning the matchups in the playoffs. It could directly cost a team a playoff spot.
agreed
League schedule integrity is threatened, but outcome is also potentially put in jeopardy when 8 or 9 players from one team go , and only one or two from another make the trip, exposing the better teams to more injuries and fatigue.. By limiting each team to contributing 4 players – some very good ones would stay home, likely off the best teams, leveling the competitive balance. San Jose may have lost Pavelski, Nabokov and or Greiss in a national draft before they lost Heatly or Marleau – at any rate only 4 would go, so at least 2 fewer would have gone. Strong teams would still be at an advantage.
And what of the players and national teams in that case? Why should Canada be forced to send an inferior team because the Sharks have a bunch of good players? Why should the fifth best player be denied the chance to go? Also, how do you determine who does get to go? Imagine if the lesser teams took four players off the Sharks roster before Canada got to pick someone?
It is not ideal I know
But there sure are problems with the 2 current options as well. Not going at all is a huge opportunity lost for the NHL. I think we can agree that thiswold be the worst possible outcome. Shutting the league down for 16-20 days also has some significant downsides; enough of them for the owners to go with option one. A modified shutdown/ capped participation has small problems compared to the big issues presented by the 2 status quo options, and in fact has some upsides. Imagine the giant fantasy draft it would be !! It would make a great event !
As far as sending an inferior team, I don’t think that Canada ( presently at least) would be greatly disadvantaged. Canada would still get their top 8-10 players and then there was just as much debate about who was left off as who was on. If Heatley had not been available, there were 3 pretty good forwards in Tampa waiting at home, and one each in Philly and Boston. I can’t see countries strategically drafting someone of lower value in order to block another team, it could come back to haunt them. For 4 countries to collude to draft Penguins early so Canada couldn’t get Crosby would require some guts and trust .The Russians might draft Malikin instead of Ovechkin in the first round , but Americans are not going to comply by drafting Orkpik early and risk losing Ryan Miller or Parise later. Canada would be in the best position to just move on to someone else if they can’t get their 15th choice in later rounds. Only 2 countries totally stocked their squads from the NHL – Canada and the US. The Americans might only have 30 total guys they would look at, so this system might hurt them the most. The Euros are already using overseas players anyway, so if the Swedes can’t get Patrick Hornqvist, then they would find someone in the Elite league. As far as fairness to the individual player, that would be the price they would as a group have to pay for the opportunity for 120 -150 of them to go, negotiated at bargaining time.
Looking at it again – 5 NHL players per roster is probably the number – not 4.
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