Please Vote! Majority Separation of the AHL and NHL

Lately people have been throwing their ideas out for large scale changes that they'd make to LG, so I figured now would be a solid time to throw out ideas for changes that I would like to see LG consider making. Note: I wanted to be as detailed as possible, so long post warning.

Question: What would be the major changes for the league?

Answer: There would be two major changes that would bring about a multitude of other changes across the NHL/AHL.

1.) NHL TC/NHL TC Draft/League Separation

• After NHL bidding concludes the NHL will conduct a TC Draft for all players not taken in NHL bidding (obviously prior to AHL bidding). The exact number of players to be selected in this draft can be debated. However, the ideal number, in my opinion, would be Six total rounds for the draft (3 forwards, 2 D and 1 G), so essentially an entire fourth line as the TC for the NHL team. Plus the players taken in the CHL Entry Draft (more on that in a bit). The NHL TC Draft goes hand in hand with the separation of the NHL/AHL. The NHL TC would become the sole source of call-up eligible players for the NHL, and NHL teams would no longer have any say regarding anything for their AHL affiliates. The teams would still be affiliated in the sense that the NHL would still be able to use their AHL roster/TC to ECU when needed. Note: Players selected in the NHL TC Draft would still enter AHL bidding. Those contracts won in bidding will be meaningless towards a potential NHL call-up, as NHL TC call-ups will be for the league minimum.

Pros of the NHL TC Draft for the NHL:

• The draft is only six rounds, so it wouldn't be too incredibly long.
• NHL teams have more of a say on which players around the league they can easily call-up (no longer have to worry about their AHL team bidding on solid players for them to potentially call-up or use as ECUs).
• All players drafted in the NHL TC Draft will be call-up eligible at the league minimum salary (500K), and can be traded freely.
• Could consider making the TC Draft selections tradable also. Good to have as many tradable assets as possible, especially when making trades at the trade deadline.
• NHL teams no longer have to be concerned about calling up AHLers who have too high of a contract. I know this has been a source of complaint from the NHL for years that they can never call up the best AHLers because they went for an absurd price in AHL bidding. As long as teams take the draft seriously, they'll have the best AHLers available for call-ups.
• Teams can more freely "tinker" with their roster (ex: Team "A" has a struggling third liner, they can waive said player and quickly insert one of their TC players). Note: If a player clears waivers, they go directly to NHL TC and get RA'd to an AHL team (like how AHL waivers works with the CHL). DPs and As would both remain NHL waivers exempt, and would also get RA'd to an AHL/CHL team if their rights aren't already owned by one.
• Teams will no longer have to struggle to find AHL management, and would no longer have to deal with complaints from their AHL affiliate.

Cons of the NHL TC Draft for the LGHL:

• NHL owners will no longer be responsible for an entire NHL and AHL organization (some owners/managers would love to just focus on their own team, but others genuinely enjoy running an entire organization, so it would be a con for those who do actually enjoy running the whole show).
• It might take some time for teams to get used to the new system, and ensuring your TC complies with the rules could be an issue. There would have to be a limit on the total number of TC players for each team. In my opinion I'd cap the TC to 10 total players for each NHL team (the 6 drafted players, plus DPs). The NHL is supposed to be the best of the best, so the vast majority of teams shouldn't ever come close to depleting their TCs anyway.
• Potential for fewer available ECUs. The team would still have a "loose" relationship with their AHL affiliate and can use their AHL roster + TC to use as ECUs when needed, but it's possible these players would be less interested in ECUing for a team that can't possibly call them up.
• Would still likely deal with complaints from AHL teams if they call-up TCs who are also on an AHL roster, but the AHL teams would also be fully aware that they've taken this risk, so you can just laugh at them for complaining.

Pros of the NHL TC Draft for the LGAHL:

• Having full autonomy of your AHL team. No longer having to worry about your NHL team trading your assets or calling people up without your approval.
• You're fully aware of whether or not you're bidding on or trading for players who have the potential to be called up.
• Teams will more easily be able to stick with their same organizations for multiple seasons and not have to worry about being picked by NHL owners or losing their team when a different NHL owner comes in.
• More of an even playing field. Teams won't have the advantage of having NHL teams who gift them things, and as mentioned at length teams also can't be hurt by their NHL teams.

Cons of the NHL TC Draft for the AHL:

• Diminished bidding pool. Six TC players per NHL team means a decent amount of the AHLs top players will end up being call-up eligible. Bidding on these players would be risky. You'd need to be very smart in bidding.
• Obviously you can still lose players due to NHL call-ups if you roster players who are under NHL control (at least this way, losing players would be 100% on yourself and you can prepare yourself in advance for potentially losing these players).

2.) Four Round CHL Entry Draft

• Yes, I'd like to see a return of the four round CHL Entry Draft (if enough CHL prospects permit). However, instead of the four rounds strictly being for the NHL, the first two rounds of the draft would specifically be for NHL teams (these drafted players go to their TC) and the last two rounds are specifically for the AHL. I'd propose that we finally impose a limit on the amount of DPs a team can use each season. As already mentioned, the NHL TC would have a maximum of 10 players (6 to be drafted in the AHL TC Draft), so that would leave us with a maximum of four DPs per team. I suppose we could allow teams to use more DPs, but they would then lose out on a round in the TC Draft. The DP contract values would need to be debated once again. I'd say 500K for all of them, but there's bound to be some super elite player who comes along again and everyone will complain about them being 500K for two seasons.

Pros of the new CHL Draft for the LGHL:

• DPs are now more valuable to your organization then they were previously. DPs should hold a slightly higher trade value.
• Quicker Draft.

Cons of the new CHL Draft for the LGHL:

• Realistically, there probably won't be two full rounds worth of CHLers actually worthy of being on an NHL TC.
• Teams would actually have to do some CHL scouting to make better use out of their DPs.
• Teams can't hoard a ton of DPs (this is good and bad, teams really shouldn't be able to hoard picks, but struggling teams do so every season).

Pros of the CHL Draft on the LGAHL:

• AHL teams finally have another asset to be used in trades.
• Should make trade deadlines more meaningful. Sellers have something to trade for other than TC players, and buyers have an extra asset.

Cons of the CHL Draft on the LGAHL:

• Lose out on selecting higher round talent that should be rostered in the AHL. The drafted players who end up on NHL TC will be RA'd to AHL and CHL TCs, but obviously they wouldn't be your "property" and could be lost at any time to an NHL call-up.

Overall impact of these rule changes on the CHL

• I didn't forget about the CHL. Honestly, the CHL remains rather unchanged. The only potential negative for the CHL would pertain to players drafted in the new format. Players taken in the last two rounds would be ineligible to make an NHL roster until their draft contract ends, and players taken in the first two rounds who don't make the NHL might have trouble finding a roster spot at a lower level because they are a call-up risk (they are a call-up risk under the current format also though). As far as the positives for the CHL, the AHL having more control of their roster should hopefully lead to less overturn of their roster and see fewer call-ups from the CHL.

What about the league as a whole (Tris, Brodie & The BOGS)?

Pros

• The league FINALLY makes some HUGE changes that the community has been asking from them for years. Is it a slam-dunk that these changes would increase overall interest in LG? Probably not (that's really only something that can happen with a decent game to play), but in my opinion these changes would certainly further separate LG from it's league competitors.
• Would definitely increase peoples interest in managing in the AHL. Would also likely help slightly increase interest in NHL ownership.
• Fewer complaints and issues regarding the strained relationships between the NHL and their AHL affiliate that have blown out of proportion this season.
• The league would pick AHL management instead of NHL owners (more work for the Bogs, but should hopefully see more qualified managers). This would also eliminate non-competitive teams season after season due to their NHL teams not caring about or pillaging their AHL teams.

Cons

• The only legitimate con, in my opinion, is just how massive of a change all of this would be. Saying this would be a lot of work for Tris and staff would be a major understatement. I'm positive Tris has the capabilities required to make these changes, but would he be willing to spend the amount of time it would take to implement these changes?
• Some people don't like change, and it takes people time to get used to changes. Especially big changes, like these, but change is certainly needed right now.
• The league would need to find out if the majority of the NHL and AHL would support these changes, and listen to feedback and suggestions.

My Final Thoughts:

• In a small amount of time we've literally gone from taking into account the AHLs level of success for NHL managerial awards to the league not giving any form of punishment whatsoever to NHL Owners who allow their AHL teams to forfeit or who dismantle their AHL or have completely non-competitive AHL teams every season. In my opinion, a middle ground needs to be found or even better almost completely remove the need for an NHL/AHL relationship. With changes almost certainly coming to LG, I figured I'd throw my ideas out there on how to help fix some of the issues plaguing LG. As someone who's played in and managed in all levels of LG at every different role (Owner/GM/Paid AGM) I tried my best to think of the interests/needs for both the NHL and AHL. I believe that the AHL would greatly support these changes, but I'm not 100% sure how the NHL managers/community would feel about these changes. I'm hoping the NHL doesn't shit on these ideas, like they did with Chi's ideas lol, as I firmly believe my ideas would also greatly help the NHL, if implemented.
• The fact of the matter is that rule changes are coming to help the AHL. You can say all you want that this was a Summer season outlier or that we're overblowing how bad the situation down here is, but that's simply not true. You can also say "The AHL is a farm team" all you want, the fact of the matter is that the AHL isn't treated like a farm system by a large amount of NHL organizations... These changes can either be large scope changes, like I'm proposing here, that should hopefully benefit everyone or smaller changes that would likely only benefit the AHL (AHL call-up protections, restricting NHL call-ups to open spots only, no trading of AHL assets, etc.). In all likelihood the changes that end up being made will be the small changes due to the fact that the larger scale changes would take a significant effort to change. With enough support however, I believe the league would seriously consider the larger changes. @LG McDonald I've briefly discussed some of these ideas with you, and I figured I'd explain them all in as much detail as possible. You'll probably say it's not possible to make changes that are this significant, and likely will just make smaller changes, but I figured I'd throw my ideas out anyway.
• There will never be a perfect system. There will be complaints from somebody regardless of what is or isn't done to change the league. LG is clearly by far the greatest site for online hockey, but simply being the best doesn't mean you should ignore the opportunity to make further improvements. I've put as much thought/detail into this as I possibly could, but I'm open to any questions/comments/concerns/suggestions.

 

Variations of this have been discussed going back at least ten seasons. Hope this time it gains some traction. Good luck to you.

 

Great write up and i hope it gets the attention and thought it deserves