THE NHLThe March Annual General Manager Meetings will be held next week in Palm Beach, Florida, for three days beginning Monday.
Let’s look at some of the topics that should be discussed:
Executive Committee
Before the superintendent meetings begin, the superintendent executive committee is scheduled to meet on Sunday, along with Commissioner Gary Bettman, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and Senior Executive Vice-President Colin Campbell, to review the agenda .
The committee is made up of Ken Holland of the Edmonton Oilers, Doug Armstrong of the St. Louis Blues, Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings, Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Winnipeg Jets, Lou Lamoriello of the New York Islanders and Don Waddell of the Hurricanes. Carolina. Lots of experience, obviously, in this group.
Cheveldayoff replaced David Poile on the committee this season after a long period Nashville Predators The architect resigned as general manager after last season.
The committee was created two years ago, so it is still a relatively new body that is trying to figure out how to be most effective. For many years, the owners’ executive committee has wielded great power, dictating how things are done at the Board of Governors level before owners’ meetings. A new owner, for example, needs the blessing of the owners’ executive committee before a true general vote of all owners on the sale of a franchise.
The executive committee of directors general is not supposed to exercise this kind of power. Rather, it’s about serving as a liaison between general managers as a whole and the league. The basic function of the committee is to facilitate the organization of agenda items for general managers’ meetings and to flag issues that should be discussed with the league prior to the meetings.
Player Safety Presentation
The player safety group, led by George Parros, still presents to general managers during their meetings, but next week’s presentation will be a more in-depth discussion given the controversial events that have taken place this season, as reported my TSN colleague Darren Dreger in our insider trading. segment Thursday evening.
THE Morgane Rielly the suspension will certainly be discussed next week, as well as other cases from this season: think Nick Cousins, Charlie McAvoy, David Perron, Brendan Gallagher And Jacob Trouba. Player safety has become a greater priority than in recent years.
I would love to be a fly on the wall for this discussion, just to see the general managers exchange their views on some of the suspensions. But as someone reminded me this week, if things get too heated during next week’s discussion, the commissioner is in the room to intervene.
One thing I have seen over the years in these meetings is Parros having one-on-one discussions with a general manager during the lunch break or after the meetings. I guess it’s probably more conducive to healthy dialogue than the group forum. I think we’ll see a bit of both next week.
Ridly Greig’s critics think he should have shown some restraint by hammering his goal into an empty net.
But if Greig has to keep his emotions quiet, shouldn’t that same rule apply to Morgan Reilly?
The Ontario battle resumes following a debate on the “Code”. https://t.co/TSTWV1a4aN
– Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) February 11, 2024
3 against 3 on the agenda
You may recall that during the last general managers meetings, in November in Toronto, managers and league officials discussed three-on-three overtime and whether to tweak it to avoid long possessions and leave the offensive zone to constantly regroup, etc.
“I’m in favor of exploring modifications,” Armstrong said Athleticism at the time. “Three-on-three is great entertainment when played with pace and multiple scoring opportunities. They are usually the most talented players on the ice, and seeing them show off their speed and skills is great for fans.
Added Kraken General manager Ron Francis, also in November for the first time, said: “I just think OT is not as exciting as when he first came in – not as many possession changes with all the regroupings. So we’re trying to see if there was what we call a “back and forth line”, does that change things? I love the thought process.
The NHL’s hockey operations department has been closely monitoring three-on-three overtimes since then, and ultimately, I believe the league’s recommendation to general managers next week will be to drop this – that introducing a penalty or a stop for crossing the central red line on a regroup would be too intrusive. However, the league will be open to feedback from general managers, so we’ll see where this goes.
Expected LTIR conversation
Although not on the official agenda per se, it is expected that the league will be open to hearing from general managers on their position regarding the LTIR/salary cap/playoff discussion. A few teams have already contacted the league about this.
General managers discussed this in their meetings two years ago, with the idea coming from the Netherlands to create some form of salary cap for the playoffs. The league then announced that it would consider the matter, but ultimately decided, a few months later, that there was nothing to do. If the league felt this was enough of an issue, which I don’t think it is, it would need the involvement of the NHL Players’ Association because changing the cap rules is a CBA issue.
By the way, the most underrated part of this whole debate is the player voice. There’s the competitive balance aspect: What do players think about the fact that some teams have a larger payroll than others due to LTIR, and is that an unfair advantage in the pursuit of the Stanley Cup? But there’s also the escrow conversation: Does LTIR spending cause players to consume more than their 50-50 share with owners and lead to more escrow?
Regardless, I think the league will be open to the LTIR/cap/playoffs discussion next week, and if there are enough GMs who have a problem with the way this works, then maybe perhaps it could stimulate change. I’m not convinced there will be a groundswell that will cause the league to think there needs to be a real conversation with the NHLPA about this, but we’ll see.
Golden Knights cap bypass? Why the NHL and other GMs aren’t crying foul on Mark Stone LTIR ⤵️ https://t.co/NwdVhsurbq
– The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) March 14, 2024
Presentation of hockey operations, coach challenges
As always, the league’s hockey operations department, led by Campbell, will make a presentation, and the timing in mid-March is always perfect to review things ahead of the playoffs.
Specifically, hockey operations will review examples from this season of video reviews of coach challenges with offsides and goalie interference, examining close calls to explain why certain decisions went wrong. been taken and what to look for in similar circumstances come playoff time.
A recent example comes from a Blues–Boston Bruins game last week, with a Boston goal called off on a play ruled offside. Jack Edwards on the Bruins broadcast wasn’t too happy, but the league will likely explain during its presentation why the call was correct.
Goalie interference will likely be the hottest topic, as it usually is. It’s almost impossible to get 32 general managers to agree on various examples of goalie interference. No one wants Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to be decided on a coach’s challenge for goaltending obstruction, but the idea again next week is to try to illustrate the attempt at consistency of the league on this subject.
Awards Venue in Vegas
The NHL still hasn’t formalized plans for its awards ceremony, and in fact, there’s no guarantee there will be an official ceremony this year.
The league toyed with the idea of holding it in Los Angeles a few days before the Las Vegas draft, but that didn’t happen. League officials will tour the Las Vegas sites early next week to see if they can find anything meaningful there on relatively short notice.
So it remains to be determined whether or not there will be a real show. But if there is one, it would make sense that it would be in Las Vegas.
(Top photo by Kelly McCrimmon and Ken Holland: Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)
