Connor Hanson

Before the NHL season begins a meeting between the general managers takes place

There are 30 teams in the NHL each with a GM representing their organization

The meetings go in to detail about salary cap, drafts, all star games, and all other things that can improve the league

GMs want expansion draft rules

With the NHL adding a team in Las Vegas their will be discussion about how the team will be assembled and how it effects the existing teams draft orders

Moving overtime games and Power plays to a 3 v. 3

The game has been in a drought of goals for sometime now and is desperate for more ratings. Creating more excitement is the main goal to attract a new crowd of hockey fans

GMs planning for the salary cap to stay flat

The salary cap for this season is $71.4 million and there is concern for how the volatility of the Canadian dollar will impact the cap for next season

A reason why Commissioner Bettman didn’t give a cap projection when the Board of Governors met in January

Stan Bowman of the Chicago Blackhawks, who has been one of the wizards in maintaining a championship team despite significant players movement because of the salary cap said

“People always make predictions, but for me its easier to plan on it to not change, and having more cap space is something I can always deal with. If you're assuming its going to go up and it doesn’t then you put yourself in a tougher spot.”

The NHL uses many different decision making processes. I think the Normative Model 5 stages best describes what they do even though this is not recommended it seems to work with the NHL, along with small group communication. They use plenty of numbers and statistics to come up with new and exciting ways to get consumers to indulge in the sport. These decisions are finalized by the GMs as a collective group and it seems to be working as the revenue for the NHL continues to rise.

The meeting between the GMs is held yearly

Giving the GMs plenty of time to reflect and prepare their thoughts on how to make the NHL better every year

When the meeting is held each GM is given the floor for 15 minutes a piece to express their thoughts and concerns

The GMs use a voting process on how to make the game more appealing to the consumer

This year a majority vote has moved toward the overtime aspect of the game to move to 3 v. 3 instead of the traditional 4 v. 4 creating more offense and excitement to the game drawing a new crowd to the game and giving the die hard fans something to talk about

The league has dropped in terms of goals per game from 2.17 in 2015 as in 1990 it was at a staggering 4.5

Looking at stats over the last ten years 3 v. 3 when both teams were penalized the goals were coming in at a rate of 5 goals per game

Giving plenty of incentive to approve the 3 v. 3 overtime. Also overtime in the NHL is at an all time high. POOR GOALIES

Since the start of the new season 3 v. 3 has already had an impact on television ratings and attendance in stadiums.

Along with the research that was conducted more goals are being scored and games are not lasting as long. Which is what all four of the major sports leagues are moving toward. The consumer doesn’t want to watch a game for more than two hours.

The NHL does a great job in promoting the new product they are releasing

The NHL network is a very popular show amongst hockey fans and they use former NHL players to hand out information. For instance they bring Steve Yzerman and Wayne Gretzky on the show twice a month and pretty much whatever they say goes, they are hockey legends and if they approve the entire NHL fan base approves as well

Fishers Phase Model

Orientation

Conflict

Emergence

Reinforcement

Each GM is very familiar with each other, having that 75 percent of them played in the NHL against or with each other.

Because each member has a prolific background in the NHL they all have an idea of what needs to be worked on and tweaked

Each team is faced with different conflicts whether its getting fans to show up to games and seeing enough revenue to having problems with how the game is played.

Because the GMs have a small group where everyone has a voice, it allows them to discuss and come up with ideas on how to solve them

At the end of each topic that is discussed by the individual GM there is a vote that takes place whether the idea should be put into affect or not and the vote must have a 2/3 to pass

Because the inner circle of the GMs is such a tight group of people it is extremely easy to support all solutions that are offered.

The trickiest part is getting the awful Commissioner to agree and approve what the GMs have to offer

I'm a huge fan of the NHL and a question I have is how much are they willing to change the game to get new people to watch? I love old time hockey and wouldn’t want to jeopardize certain hockey traditions.

Will they ever consider changing the format of how they make decisions? It seems to be working as of right now and it has been pleasing the average fan.

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expansion-draft-rules/c-281010592

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-general-managers-meetings-nhl-expansion/c-279662234

https://www.nhl.com/news/review-of-rule-changes-on-docket-for-gm-meetings/c-787153