Should the NHL Adopt an In-Season Tournament a la the NBA?

If you were to rate every sports commissioner in the four major professional sports, Adam Silver would be at the top of your list.

At least he should be.

Robert Manfred has divided MLB owners and players even more than his predecessors, building his version of baseball without consultation. Roger Goodell has the likability of genital warts and has piles of money sheltering his piles of money. 

Conversely, the NBA’s commissioner has been a trendsetter among his fellow heads of leagues. Silver embraced gambling quicker than anyone else, signing partnerships with some of the biggest names in the game. Further, he’s grown the NBA footprint and been a trailblazer in innovating professional basketball. 

Silver’s latest accomplishment is implementing a first-of-its-kind in-season NBA Tournament. With such a diverse strategy and ongoing success, it’s time the other three leagues start emulating Silver’s creativity.

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Then there’s Gary Bettman.

The NHL commissioner has been in charge of the league through three lockouts, missing an entire season for the sake of money. Despite his best efforts, the NHL has remained mostly flat through the past five years, failing to generate income to match the other three leagues. 

Given the circumstances, Bettman would be wise to follow Silver’s lead and put together an innovative product that the game so desperately needs.

If anything, Bettman is probably steamed that he didn’t come up with the idea of an in-season tournament first.

The NHL has had no shortage of gimmicky ideas under Bettman’s reign. From a seemingly neverending supply of outdoor games bracketed under different banners to re-formating the All-Star Game (and then re-formatting it again) to abandoning the classic postseason bracket in favor of the current abomination, Bettman has tried nearly every way of growing the game. 

Still, the NHL lacks a flagship event to draw new viewers to the rinks.

For years, one of the biggest knocks on the NHL is that they don’t have a ‘best-on-best’ tournament. Hockey players haven’t been to the Olympics in ten years, and the newfangled “World Cup” has repeatedly fallen flat on its face. 

Part of the issue is that Bettman and the NHLPA (mostly Bettman) have been unable to achieve agreements with the governing body for international hockey, the IIHF. 

Not surprisingly, money is usually the point of contention. The IIHF lacks the funds to line the NHL’s pockets, which generally means players are left out of IIHF-sanctioned tournaments.

The solution to Bettman’s constant struggle could be introducing a hybrid All-Star Game/In-Season Tournament. Hell, he could even mix in an outdoor game if he wanted to drive the people crazy.

Gather every team in one locale; Alberta conveniently has two NHL arenas less than 200 miles apart, has hosted the entire league in the past, and can facilitate an outdoor game if need be. Make it a single-elimination, with all the best players in the world trying to capture the Wayne Gretzky Cup and an automatic berth into the postseason. (In all seriousness, Bettman would probably want to name the trophy after himself.)

This solves all of the issues that continue to put the NHL at the back of the professional sports pack. 

In a league where nothing has been off-limits, the NHL needs to consider an In-Season Tournament. Bettman is constantly trying to reinvent the wheel but has never landed on an idea that has turned the hockey world on its head. Moreover, there’s an appetite for a tournament of this nature, and Bettman has all the resources at his fingertips. 

Even if it doesn’t work, at least it gives the fanbase another opportunity to boo Bettman.

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