There's no such thing as a bad idea.
That appeared to be the theme of the first day of general manager meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., where the group of 31 gathered Monday to talk about the future of the NHL.
A different 1st day at the GMs meeting. They broke out in 4 groups and talked about the game and what could happen in 3, 5 and 10 years.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) March 6, 2017
Basically in each group the GMs bounced ideas off of everyone in the room. No idea too radical. No idea too zany. If you think it, say it.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) March 6, 2017
Here are some of the things that were discussed:
1. Placing one faceoff circle in each offensive zone: "One of our comments is a lot of times the puck's won and now it's all of a sudden a board battle," said Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving, according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet. "But if you put one faceoff circle right in the middle of each end zone - you're right in front of the net."
2. Eliminating the loser point: Toronto Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello proposed reverting back to the old point system.
Veteran GM Lou Lamoriello on the other hand says he would rather go back to 2 points for a win and zero for any kind of loss. No loser point
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) March 6, 2017
3. Rule changes to increase offense: Many ideas were bounced around, such as increasing zone and net size, but a big one appears to have been making it illegal to leave your feet to block a shot.
"That was mentioned a long time ago by Bob Gainey," said New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero. "Everybody thought he was crazy. But that's what you try to do - look 15, 20 years ahead. What is good for the game? The quality of the game is most important."
The GMs will gather again Tuesday and it's expected they'll talk in more concrete terms about the offside rule, the length of video reviews, and bye weeks.
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