Can the NHL get through this?
On the ice, the quality of the NHL has never been higher. The game is faster and players are more skilled – and feel freer to try the kind of highlight games that wouldn’t have been tolerated in previous eras. Whether it’s Edmonton’s Connor McDavid using his skating and puck skills to make an end-to-end rush or Chicago’s 18-year-old rookie Connor Bedard showing off a shot that’s already among the best of the league, the match is in great shape. .
But off the ice, the NHL took a big hit. Commissioner Gary Bettman has held the position for 30 years, and the league has not been innovative in recent years. As proof: in November, the NHL launched NHL Breakaway, its collectible digital NFT program for hockey highlights. On the other hand, NBA Top Shot, the NBA version of the same concept, launched in 2020, at the start of the NFT boom. Culturally, decisions such as banning special warm-up jerseys – after a handful of players refused to wear pride-themed jerseys during warm-ups before their teams’ annual LGBTQ+ awareness games – have created a perception that the NHL has little interest in inclusion.
The salary cap has also stagnated since the start of the corona virus pandemic, crippling teams that previously signed players to long-term contracts based on projected cap increases. Many NHL executives believe the cap is almost stable (it has increased) only $2 million since 2019) has limited trading activity at a time when NBA teams are making blockbuster trades left and right – and generating fan interest and engagement with those moves.
The latest projection has the salary cap ready to increase from $4.2 million to $87.7 million next season. This should help solve one of the problems, but how the NHL is viewed culturally — especially among young people the league is trying to cultivate — will remain front and center in the new year. -Bailey Johnson
