Over the past couple months, the National Hockey League (NHL) and the parity of its teams has been written about a lot, and perhaps overdone. With the expansion draft coming before the 2017-2018 regular season, where the league will add at least 1 team to the league (Las Vegas), writers and fans are seemingly upset with the league, who is said to constantly hamstring their best teams.
One instance was the adaption of the salary cap. During the 2004-2005 lockout, the league and the players’ union decided that they would add a hard cap, which would limit the amount of total salary a team could have on its roster for each season. With this, big market teams like the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and the like could not be the only teams to land the big free agents, which made the playing field much more level for the small market teams.
The debate of “too much league parity” is coming back up now with the expansion draft and certain rules that it will include. For this special type of draft, each team can protect 11 players (seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie) from being selected. The other players who are not protected are put into the draft pool. One of the rules that the draft will enforce is the protection of players with no movement clauses in their contracts. This can hurt teams like the Chicago Blackhawks, the New York Rangers and many other teams who had to sign a guy to a deal including one of those NMC’s to compensate them for taking less money so the team could fit under the cap.
Writers and fans, like the New York Post’s lead NHL writer Larry Brooks, think the NHL should model their league like their rivals in the NBA. Brooks and his followers think that the league should do a better job marketing its stars and let their great teams be great. Brooks even went as far as to mock the NHL for not wanting a Golden State Warriors vs Cleveland Cavaliers dynamic going on.
I don’t think Brooks could be any more wrong on that last point.
The NHL should be proud of the parity it has had for the past decade with the salary cap in place. The thing that has been so great about the NHL for so long is that every year there are about 10-15 teams that you could argue could win the Stanley Cup. That is why the playoffs are so exciting. If you look back to Jan. 1 of last year, I would have told you that you were crazy if you thought the Stanley Cup Final was going to be between the San Jose Sharks and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
While I do agree with Brooks’ point as far marketing its players better, the last thing the NHL should do is become the NBA as far as parity is concerned. Coming into the season, 90 percent of people would have told you Warriors and the Cavaliers would meet up in the finals for the second straight year. Heck, if I am guessing who will be in the finals for the 2016-2017 season, I would still say Warriors and Cavaliers.
The NBA, as much as I truly do love it, is the most predictable out of the four major sports. There are rarely any Cinderella teams and most of the time what the numbers tell you will happen do happen. Where is the fun in watching the playoffs if you know the same two teams are going to meet in the finals for a couple years in a row and likely a few more years into the future?
I will take the unpredictability of the NHL, where everybody has a chance, and the guys with the most heart, dedication and skill and not necessarily the deepest pockets can be victorious.
