It's been over 2 1/2 seasons since the NHL lockout ended and many people are wondering what has really changed. Remember coming out of the lost season everyone was talking about the new NHL with revamped rules, parity, shootouts, a faster game and more scoring. I've searched for relevant information and this is what conclusions I've made.
Parity through the salary cap
The salary cap (and salary minimun) was supposed to bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots and ensure more teams make money. Parity has in fact been achieved. No one can stock up on all the good players and therefore small market teams are bidding for and signing free agents. It's early February and few teams are out of contention for a playoff spot which is great for local fans. In baseball many teams are out of the pennant race well before the All Star break. However, the cap has been rising rapidly which means teams that were not making money before the lockout are still not making money. And the few wealth teams make even more money because their payroll has shrunk.
NHL is getting younger
The big stars are still making big money so the cap puts the squeeze on all the rest, especially the older players. To save money teams are forced to let go veterans and play younger and cheaper players. The average age of the top 30 NHL scorers was just over 30 in 2000-01. Currently it's 27.5. Daniel Alfredsson and Mats Sundin are the only senor citizens near the top of the league scoring. Instead, what we've got is players 25 or under: Ilya Kovalchuk, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Ryan Getzlaf, Jason Spezza, Evgeni Malkin, Mike Richards, Paul Stastny, Eric Staal and Corey Perry. That's because the new rules favour speed and creativity and allow players still developing physcially to play at the NHL level. Chicago future star Patrick Kane is only 59" and 165 pounds.
NHL players are getting smaller
Before the lockout, the trend at draft day was to pick BIG kids. With all the obstruction,you needed to be a Todd Betuzzi to get to the net. In 2004, the average height and weight of a 1st round draft pick was 6'2 1/4" and 199 pounds. By 2007 that had dropped to 6'1/2" and 187 pounds. It's quite a contrast and too early to know if it will stick but it appears the rule changes have had an impact. And small players are going in higher rounds now. Where its most noticeable is at defense. When Ian White was drafted he was not expected to make the NHL because of size but his skating skills became more desirable post-lockout.
Scoring hasn't picked up much
There were numerous changes made to increase scoring including cracking down on obstruction, restricting goalies behind the net, moving the blue lines and eliminating 2-line offsides. There was a brief jump as a result of the number of powerplays as players adjusted to new rules. But as the league adjusted scoring has gotten back to close to where it was.
Penalty calls have changed a lot
There was a huge upswing in calls for hooking, holding and tripping after the lockout. The numbers have leveled off now but they are still the most common calls now. That was not the case before the lockout. The most common calls used to be roughing, slashing and highsticking. It didn't really improve the game that much because there were too many whistles. This year is the first year that the number of penalties per game is below the pre-lockout period. There have also been fewer fights because those 4th liners who like to mix it up rarely saw the ice since teams were so often either on the powerplay or penalty kill. The size of today's NHLers really tells the story on how the refereeing has changed the game. I think for the better.
12 years ago
