Should the NHL introduce relegation? Halford & Brough podcast discuss differences between American and European sports formats

Does NHL require relegations? It's a question that is asked by every fan. Anyone who has watched European football knows the system of promotions and relegations.

In the EPL, the last three teams are relegated to the second division. To replace those teams, the top three teams from the Championship(second division) are promoted to the EPL.

This question is not restricted to the NHL itself but to all American leagues. The NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB have a system where they reward the teams who have performed the worst. In all of these leagues, the worst teams are rewarded with the most exciting draft picks.

There have been times when teams deliberately lose or "tank" to get their hands on lucrative draft prospects. Those teams do eventually get good and remain at the top.

Of course, certain teams maxed out their cap space and yet perform badly. Vancouver Canucks is one of them. Mike and Jason of the Halford and Brough podcast discussed this exact thing.

"There is nothing in North American Sports that compares to that. Nothing. the only thing I can see is like, the Canucks had a terrible season, but they won the draft lottery."

They talked about how hard relegation is, especially for a club like Leeds and mentioned that they don't hear NHL executives when they say they went like when Kyle Davidson, the general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks won the draft lottery.

They won't say we shouldn't be celebrating this because the only way we got here was by being a lousy hockey team.

They say that it's kind of shaming when teams like Manchester City or Manchester United do not go to these clubs anymore. Hence, the season becomes more important for them as they don't want to fall further because they don't know when they will come back.

Will relegation ever be implemented? If it is up to the billionaire owners of the NHL, then the answer is no.

The Vancouver Canucks had a disappointing NHL season

The 2022–23 Vancouver Canucks season finished much better than it had started. Unfortunately, given how poorly the season started, that doesn't mean anything.

The Canucks had a 17-21-3 record in the season's opening half. Though they performed better after switching coaches from Bruce Boudreau to Rick Tocchet, their 21-16-4 record was still only enough for the 18th position.

This was another disappointing season for the Vancouver Canucks and they will hope to improve on the record next season.