NSHL TOP 5s

NSHL24 State of the League

As the Commissioner walks out on to the stage towards the podium, an aide runs out from behind the curtain and holds out their hand.

'Sir, I think you dropped this...!'

The aide hands over what appears to be the Commissioner's Canadian health card providing free access to healthcare. Before he can say thanks, the aide continues

'You don't want to lose that!'

'No, I certainly don't!' the Commissioner responded. 'Thank you.'

The Commissioner places the card back in his Made in Canada wallet (ethically sourced, too!) and continues to the podium.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining me on this Easter long-weekend. You'll have to bare with me, it has been a while since I've done one of these.

Today I want to talk about all things NSHL. I want to talk about where we are. I want to talk about where we've been. And most importantly, I want to talk about where we're going.

At the end of NSHL23 league General Managers were encouraged to submit specific feedback on what they liked, didn't like or suggestions for the future of our league. Thankfully, many GMs took me up on the offer and submitted helpful & constructive feedback.

Many GMs expressed that they'd be happy with more engagement, different events or modifications to existing events. Much of which we've seen, will see or can hope to see in the near future. But I can admit fault on my part when it comes to that engagement and it's something we all dread happening:

Too fast. Too soon.

As teams were just settling in from a new season and recovering from Opening Day Waivers, within weeks there were Ladder Matches, HockeyNights KOTR entries, and this measure of national pride event that.. we don't actually do anything in?! the FourNations.

"I just want to submit lines a few times a week.."

I hear you. Let's do better.

Does that mean these events were a flop and should be stricken from the calendar forever and ever?

No. But we've got a 180 day calendar to work with, not everything needs to happen within the first 1/3 of that.

Look, this is in my opinion where we are:

League health has never been better: there are more active and engaged GMs on average since the early days where there were only a handful of GMs (and an NHL lockout to boot..). Some of those GMs are still here, might I add, although with a few more greys than Day 1...

For the most part franchises are financially stable. More GMs see value in draft picks and developing prospects. There is more attention paid to the MSHL. Much of that is thanks to those previously mentioned "add-ons" like HockeyNights and Ladder Matches.

The year started off with a website that was not as intended. The goal of making it more mobile friendly came with a number of learning curve headaches that have been or are being ironed out. The customization of the Top 5s on the home screen certainly adds interest and keep us up-to-date with who is doing what daily and that will hopefully encourage more thoughtful and educated Awards balloting.

It took a bit of time and we're still learning as it all unfolds but LADDER 🪜 matches are an encouraging addition that seem to keep GMs thinking and engaged. Sure, they've needed on the fly modifications (line changes?!) and will certainly need a bit more massaging in the future, but its another add-on that's both free and optional for teams to engage with.

Ok so we know where we've been with these events and add-ons, but where are we going with them?

What if our creative minds come together and figure out a way that combines HockeyNights and The LADDER 🪜 into one? Perhaps a HockeyNight is established by a challenge on The LADDER 🪜 and as such, there's less guessing in HockeyNights and also less requirement to submit a list early on. Could it work? I think we've got the right people to try and figure it out.

An International Game

Did you know the National Simulated Hockey League employs nearly 2,000 players and about one quarter of those players were not born in the country of the team they play for? They're not here stealing jobs, they're providing value and earning them. Igor Shesterkin, second best S% in the league. Not from here. Kevin Fiala, reigning PSC champ and in a three-way tie for 3rd in league PTS. Not from here. Nils Hoglander, tied for 3rd in rookie points, Erik Karlsson, leads all NSHL blue-liners in PTS, Nikita Zadorov, 2nd in league +/- and none of them are from here.

Shoutout to the Top 5 customizations for making that so easy for me to research, btw.

With so much of our talent coming from all over the planet, an event like FourNations can absolutely work. The jaws that dropped when Sweden 🇸🇪 came back and beat Canada 🇨🇦 tells you all you need to know about the level of our competition.

I believe that version one of the FourNations got off to a rough start because I explained it poorly. Now that GMs are aware of how the event runs I think FourNations 2.0 will be that much better. We'll surely see more MSHL names involved to make it even more competitive. Perhaps we can look into adding teams like Russia 🇷🇺 and a "Best of the Rest" squad. Maybe this event runs as parallel as we can to the World Juniors or Olympics.

International events have never done overly well in our environment because of how few nations there are compared to the number of interested GMs. But this KOTR-style format seems to work and keeps engagement high.

A number of GMs have inquired about re-visiting an event like The SHOWCASE which threw some interested twists and team building dynamics into the equation. I'd love to re-visit and hope to when the time is right (and that may be sooner than later..)

What we've done over the past several months is explore a different way of doing things (website, events, on-the-fly adjustments) and from my point-of-view this is what's contributing to our overall success.

I mentioned teams financial health earlier and we haven't even had to rely on AUCTIONS to keep teams afloat this season. No one can sit and plan to rebuild off others from All-Star Classic money every few years, and yet players are still being paid and fans are still showing up.

The Future

Soon I am going to get started on NHL ratings for NSHL25. Everyone gets excited over new ratings so they can see what their prospects could look like when they enter the league or whether or not teams want to splash some cash on an NHL Re-Rate via AUCTION (which doesn't exist yet?).

This year I'm going to dig further for NHL ratings.

My goal is to see if I can lure more players to the NSHL and MSHL. Players we haven't seen before.

Can we develop ratings for players from the AHL? NCAA? OHL? WHL? QMJHL? Perhaps the SHL?

Can we add to our depth?

Could the concept of the "AHL GOALIE" become even greater where we have other players available to fill roster slots?

Could we have a separate system that allows teams to start building and tracking players in their junior and NCAA systems earlier?

I don't know, but I'm willing to try and find out.

I'm going to do what I can to try and find the data needed to bring more players in. WE can start to think about the ways in which these players can benefit our systems.

If there is a Junior/NCAA player rating system, what values should be assigned to their rates compared to the NSHL or MSHL? How would these players incorporate / interact with what we have already? What does that look like?

We've proven this season we do better when we think and adapt together, so this is another tremendous opportunity to grow.

To answer an obvious question stemming from having more player depth: What do we need it for? Teams already run with top six forwards in their bottom six and 3rd pair affordable blue-liners regularly clear waivers because there's so much out there..

And then the penny drops..

Plus 2? 4?

Yes, I'm hoping for expansion in the NSHL for NSHL25.

The more "user friendly" number of teams after 24 (current) is 28 but I'm not sure the player depth or GM bench strength is there for +4 teams. Could/would we happily land on 26 and make do?

Look, if we don't add players (goalies in particular..) expansion is a non-starter. We don't have enough to run 52 full rosters (NSHL & MSHL) with bench coverage in case of injury. But should we find those players and think it helps the league to have more active franchises, it's an option we should explore.

The other primary requirement for new franchises would be new General Managers. Over the years people have said their pal so and so would be a great candidate. Is so and so truly interested? Still? Can we find those bodies? Will they be suitable with what we've built?

As always, I'm open to suggestion.

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