It used to be so simple.
The NHL’s claim on the calendar would start in October with a dozen or so (depending on the year) opening puck drops and end in May when the Stanley Cup was hoisted and skated in front of a rink full of delighted fans.
As for the four months in between: No ice, please.
It was easy to keep track of and provided a healthy respite. Still, the voluntary cessation of hockey activity simultaneously ceded the mainstream stage to other sports with more ambitious agendas.
The NFL only plays from September to February, but, thanks to heavy emphasis on its draft and free-agency processes, rarely spends a day away from the white-hot media spotlight.
The same goes for the NBA, which has gone from the irrelevance of having its championship series broadcast on tape delay as recently as the 1980s to becoming a similarly scaled year-round attention-grabber.
Its draft has become a source of prolonged pre-pick hand-wringing from an army of pop-up pundits and the opt-in/opt-out circus spawned by its free-agency frenzy is constant fodder for the ESPN ticker.
Is “The King” opting out? Are the Lakers in on Bronny? Will Paul George get a max deal somewhere?
It’s chaotic. It’s dramatic. And it’s become required summer-school reading to maintain basketball literacy.
Meanwhile, for those who enjoy hockey on the important sports meter, it was finally time to copy a recipe that’s worked elsewhere.
Enter commissioner Gary Bettman, who was a high-ranking hoops executive before he came to the NHL, and others…and presto, we’re talking about hockey by the pool.
The league’s annual draft still isn’t on the level of the others regarding buzz, but holding it at the newly opened and eminently Insta-worthy Sphere in Las Vegas was an easy hook for the hashtag crowd.
And now that organizations have wholly embraced the premise of working out blockbuster trades at the draft and tilling the ground for head-turning free-agent moves when the signing period begins days later, it’s game on.
Nearly three dozen official deals were swung from Friday to Sunday, including two-time Cup winner Mikhail Sergachev and his $8.5 million cap hit heading from Tampa Bay to Utah for two players and two picks.
Hours later, the Lightning filled the chasm by acquiring the rights to imminent free agent Jake Guentzel from Carolina for a third-rounder and quickly taking him off the market with a seven-year, $63 million pact.
The Toronto Maple Leafs followed the same roadmap with coveted defenseman Chris Tanev, whose rights were plucked from Dallas for a player and a pick before he was locked down for six years at $4.5 million per.
Years ago, understanding save percentage and the icing rule was enough to prove hockey street cred.
Now, unless you are fluent in AAV and can recite the buyout process, too, you’re meh at best and sus at worst.
The exodus of franchise face Steven Stamkos to Nashville on Monday is sure to inspire passionate chatter for the foreseeable future in Tampa, where he’s been since taking NHL baby steps after the 2008 draft.
And his arrival to the Predators alongside fellow ex-champ Jonathan Marchessault (snagged from Vegas for $27.5 million over five years) might actually carve out a niche for offseason hockey talk in Tennessee.
Yes, that said hockey. Yes, that said Tennessee.
And yes, for anyone with any stake in the sport’s long-term viability and visibility, that’s welcome news.
Because if you get their attention, the game’s enough.
The speed, skill and physicality on the ice are often intoxicating to newbies, and the flag for the younger generation is being carried by 20-somethings Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews with teens Connor Bedard and newly-drafted Macklin Celebrini in tow.
Twenty teams showed an attendance increase in 2023-24 over the previous season, led by an 11.7 percent boost by the Florida Panthers in a nontraditional metropolitan Miami market and a 9.7 percent uptick in Chicago for the Bedard-led Blackhawks.
That doesn’t include outdoor games at baseball and football stadiums, which provide particularly compelling visuals and tailgating opportunities; or international games, which further project the NHL game beyond North America’s borders.
And last but not least, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final averaged better than 7.5 million viewers from start to finish and included a 10.3 million peak in the closing minutes, the largest number in league history for a team outside of its Original Six.
So is it any wonder Bettman is smiling?
“The game has never been not only more competitive but more entertaining and more exciting,” he told The Pat McAfee Show. “We’ve probably never been healthier as a sport.”
