Highlights to here

Adam Proteau put out an invitation that I couldn't turn down. In one of his recent columns (http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/12878-Screen-Shots-My-utopian-NHL.html) he describes his ideal NHL. He asked hockey fans to tell him what their ideal NHL would look like. I sent him the email below, which is essentially a highlight reel of this blog. Here's hoping One Hockey Fan gets some lines on thehockeynews.com

Hi Adam,

Every now and then I rant a little on my blogspot about making changes to the good old hockey game. I couldn't pass up your invitation to pass on my ideas about improving the hockey industry. Here's a brief summary of some of my ideas:

The International Showcase

• Olympics
  
• Olympic participants must be under 25 years old.
• No NHL would lose more than one goalie and 4 skaters to Olympic participation.
• Of the 10 participating nations, the bottom 4 would have first selection. Then, an IIHF draft for the top 6 countries to select their players from the NHL.
• No league shutdown during the games, just a lighter schedule.
• World Cup
• Tournament held midway between Olympic years instead of All-Star game.
• 6 teams, two pools, 9 games total over 7-10 days.
• All games in North America in NHL cities.
• Other
• Between Olympics and World Cups replace All-Star game with a showcase game between reigning European club champion and Stanley Cup champion.

League Structure

• No conferences, 5 divisions of 6 teams
• Top 16 teams divided geograhpically into 4 pools (NE, SE, SW, NW) for initial home and away round robin playoff round
• Top 2 teams from each pool advance to best of 7 quarterfinals (1NE vs 2SE, 1SE vs 2SW, 1SW vs 2NW, 1NW vs 2NE) with home ice advantage determined by regular season points.
• Semifinals based on regular season points 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3.
• Relocate Phoenix back to Winnipeg, Nashville to Southern Ontario, Atlanta or Florida to Quebec City, and NY Islanders to Hartford
• Or bottom two teams relegated to AHL and top two AHL teams promoted to NHL (replace "minor league affiliation" with "player on loan" or "tier transfer" agreement)

Rules

• 4 on 4 in OT in playoffs.
• New arenas constructed to be able to have IIHF size ice. Targeted move to larger ice surface by 2020.
• Have shoot out at the beginning of every game and use results only if needed.
• No linesmen, three referees.
• Get rid of delay of game for accidentally putting puck out of play.

Hope you like.
-One Hockey Fan