No Show For The Winners

I'll be the first to admit that the pageantry and the intrigue that went into the NHL Awards in past years simply doesn't feel like it's there any longer. For most of the awards, they were announced long before the NHL Awards 2024 broadcast last season, making the show feel quite redundant. It's still cool to see the players with their families, friends, and teammates when they're sitting in the rows of seats, but it feels somewhat forced for the players who have to attend only to be told "you didn't win". That may change, however, as it sounds like the NHL will steal another idea from the NBA in its quest to be more like everyone else than trying to be unique.

According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, the NHL "and the NHLPA are brainstorming new ideas to change the made-for-TV awards show" with one of the ideas reported by Friedman being "doing it the way the NBA does it". The NBA, for those who aren't aware, present their major trophies to each of the winners during the first week of the NBA playoffs in their home arenas. I'm not sure how Connor Hellebuyck would have liked that last season after the Avalanche buried the Jets in five games, but that's not for me to decide.

"These are the kind of things that are being considered because it's not expected this year that there will be an awards show as we've seen it in the past," Friedman reported during Hockey Night in Canada's Saturday Headlines segment.

If you're keeping track, the NHL already decentralized the NHL Entry Draft this season, allowing GMs to stay home rather than gathering in one city where picks are made in person. With the NHL Awards Show now being decentralized, it seems the tradition "year end" gatherings the NHL once held will no longer require attendance of any sort.

With both the awards show and the draft being held in June along with the Stanley Cup Final and the opening of free agency on July 1, there is some truth to Friedman's quotation of "too much, too quickly" when it comes to the NHL scheduling all these events. Of course, this could be easily solved by cutting the preseason schedule to a few games, moving the start of the season into September, and reducing the overall number of games in the season from 82 to, say, 78, but the NHL will always bend to the will of making more money while cutting costs than the opposite.

I want to be clear in stating that I don't watch the NHL Awards Show in most years anyway. Like I stated, it seems fairly easy to pick the winners for most awards, and I usually am busy in June with non-hockey stuff so clearing a couple of hours for bad jokes and fairly obvious interview questions isn't my idea of a good time. I won't complain loudly if they scrap the show, but this seems to be following a trend where the NHL is reducing its recognition for tradition.

Some will say that tradition can evolve, and I don't disagree. I do think a decentralized entry draft makes little sense when we see general managers making deals with each other in real time on the draft floor, but a decentralized award presentation - aka cancelling the show - feels like the easiest path in solving how to make the NHL Awards Show better.

I can't imagine many of the players complaining about this decision as they value their off-season and days off like gold, but maybe decentralizing everything is the new tradition of the NHL. If this idea of presenting the awards to the winner in their home cities doesn't make anything better or more popular, where does the NHL go from here? Because there aren't a lot of options left.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!