NHL Off-Topic thread

[Majingir]

Seems a change to the draft is coming up.

Instead of a draft lottery for the top 3 picks, it will be for the top 2 only (so the worst team is guaranteed a top 3 pick). However, you can only win the lottery twice in a 5 year span, and teams can only jump up 10 spots (which I still feel is too high).

Dont think these rules will apply this year, but regardless, the 2021 draft is going to be the craziest draft in quite some time.

You're drafting guys in July who you have barely seen play over the past 18 months. This will be the ultimate "lottery ticket" draft yet. Imo it would be foolish to even trade up in this year's draft. If I were a GM, no amount of scouting would make me feel confident on this class. I wouldn't even be surprised to see more buyers at the deadline dealing away picks for short term rentals.

[Majingir]

MAJOR breaking news!

NHL signs a 7 year TV deal with ESPN!

ESPN will get to broadcast 4 Stanley cup finals from 2022-2028.

NHL back on ESPN for first time since 2003-2004 season.

This is great news for the NHL. Hopefully ESPN can do NHL justice and finally start giving it respect instead of pretending like it didnt even exist.

NBC I'd guess gets the other part of the deal. Although if they do, I wonder when they air games. Monday and Tuesday will be filled with WWE, so Wednesday probably has NHL on USA. But which night becomes NHL on ESPN night? Tuesday and Thursday?

[slickdtc]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

MAJOR breaking news! NHL signs a 7 year TV deal with ESPN!

How much is the signing bonus though?

For real, best case scenario. Get some games on ESPN, get to also stick with your partner for the last 15 years. Win win.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by slickdtc

How much is the signing bonus though? For real, best case scenario. Get some games on ESPN, get to also stick with your partner for the last 15 years. Win win.

Nobody knows what the deal is, but people speculating that since its 4 years of SCF, that means ESPN gets the big deal and NBC/USA gets the secondary deal.

If the SCF ends up on ABC as well, that would be huge as well. For the NHL, getting games promoted as part of "championship June" alongside the NBA finals (maybe even instances where every day has either NBA finals or SCF) is obviously big for them.

I'd take ESPN/ABC over NBC/NBCSN/USA. But if the secondary deal is both NBC and USA, then having NBC,ESPN,ABC and USA hosting hockey will be great for the league. I personally will love seeing the NHL promotion for USA on WWE. USA is already an upgrade over NBCSN with them having 10m more subscribers than NBCSN had.

I wonder what talent they'd get. ESPN did let go many hockey people a couple of years back. Guys like Lebrun went to TSN. TSN has made some firings recently, perhaps ESPN looks for those people to possibly cover hockey. Maybe Dan O'Toole jumps to ESPN (doesn't seem like SN wants him, and TSNs firing was controversial).

[pietasterp]

The problem is if the majority of the games or a significant number of them are only on ESPN+, in which case, this is sort of a downgrade for me, since I have no interest in yet another streaming service. We'll see how it goes, but presumably, having hockey on an "all sports" network that doesn't have to share time with "Law & Order" reruns and the like should - in theory - be a win.

Also, just the coverage of hockey on ESPN ought to improve, given how overboard ESPN goes with 'covering' their own broadcast events (want 4 straight hours of post-game analysis of a Cincinnati-Jacksonville Monday Night Football game that nobody watched? You're in luck!!). Seriously. ESPN covers the NBA like it's the Cuban missile crisis, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that they (over)paid $1.4 Billion/year to carry the league's games.

Anyway, as long as they bring back the ESPN hockey night theme music, I suppose that's a win for the US fans in and of itself.

[Majingir]

ESPN+ definitely will be part of the deal, but heres hoping it's a secondary part of their coverage.

Like if they want to show HNIC games on Saturday night, they could opt for showing the SN feed on ESPN+ if they want.

[nikethebike]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

MAJOR breaking news! NHL signs a 7 year TV deal with ESPN! NHL back on ESPN for first time since 2003-2004 season.

I wonder what the cap hit will be during these 7 seasons... Is it a Loui deal? 🤣


They better bring back the ESPN hockey theme. Being a guy growing up in the nineties nothing screams NHL more than that song to me. NHL2K5 was awesome in part just due to the music and presentation.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by nikethebike

I wonder what the cap hit will be during these 7 seasons... Is it a Loui deal? They better bring back the ESPN hockey theme. Being a guy growing up in the nineties nothing screams NHL more than that song to me. NHL2K5 was awesome in part just due to the music and presentation.

I believe the NHL did say the cap wasn't going up next season, but hopefully it can go up lots soon.

I know for the Leafs, they've been banking on the cap going up. Their current core with a cap over 90m is definitely what they've been planning for. Those 11m cap hits are still big, but that would feel like an 8-9m cap hit with the salary caps of the last several years.