ESPN holds the TV rights to the NHL for a few more years and that deal is part of the reason why the salary cap has finally started to go up again, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the TV channel cares all that much about the league. They recently released their top 100 athletes of the 21st century and there were a few hockey players on there, but you’d have to squint hard to find them.
One of my least favorite things about the NHL right now is 3-on-3 overtime because teams just regroup and hold onto the puck until they feel like they’ve got a chance. Over in Russia, they’re testing a new rule in overtime in one of their Junior leagues that doesn’t allow teams to bring the puck back to their side of the ice.
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News And Rumors
Pittsburgh Hockey Now: ESPN is how most people in the US watch the NHL these days because they hold the streaming rights to the league, but that doesn’t mean the people at the network watch much of it either. They released their top 100 athletes list of the 21st century, and just three NHL players made the list. What do you think? Is Sidney Crosby too low at 22? They’ve got Connor McDavid down at 98, and Alex Ovechkin at 54. Here’s the full list.
RMNB: Would you like to see the NHL change the overtime rules to where players are not allowed to skate the puck back to their side of the ice? That’s what they’re going to test out in the MHL next season.
The Junior Hockey League will test new rule in the 2024-25 season:
Players are not allowed to skate with the puck back to their half of the ice in OT. A minor penalty shall be imposed upon the team starting the 2nd violation of the rule. pic.twitter.com/PNuHqE6b86
— KHL (@khl_eng) July 19, 2024
I’m not a 3-on-3 fan, so interested to see how this ends up working out.
Detroit Hockey Now: One of the better bargains out there will be in Vancouver, as the Canucks signed Daniel Sprong for less than a million dollars next season. Sprong is a good goal scorer, but doesn’t do much else, and that’s probably why teams avoided him. Still, getting him for under a million is good value.
New Jersey Hockey Now: Is the Devils owner looking to bring basketball to the Garden State? It sounds like they’re trying to steal a team from Philadelphia.
Buffalo Hockey Now: The Sabres are missing a lot of things, but here are is one thing they’ll be missing from all the players not returning next year.