If I Were in Charge of.....the NHL

It's time for another installment of the ongoing series "If I Were in Charge of".  This time around, we look at the National Hockey League.  This is a league that has a great playoff system and indeed has had it's ups and downs with regard to leadership (see the lockout that shut down an entire season....ultimate fail).  They have improved since then but there are still a few things that I'd do to help with improving the league.  So with that in mind, if I were in charge of the NHL.....

*Have a new TV deal with ESPN.  Yes I know they signed a huge TV deal with NBC and helped relaunch what used to be Verses (which used to be the Outdoor Life Network) to now the NBC Sports Network but seriously the NHL needs to be back on ESPN.  When they left the network, ESPN pretty much dropped 95% of their coverage of the sport.  Sad on their part yes but that's what they did.  I would work out a contract where ESPN gets Tuesday night games on the original (not ESPN 2 or any of the other ESPN "family of networks") starting at the beginning of the season.  If things went well, maybe even have an option to show early rounds of the Stanley Cup Finals.  More exposure on ESPN would be beneficial to the sport and would be a nice stepping stone to growth.

*More games on NBC, especially more Stanley Cup Finals games.  Yes I know the start of the NHL season overlaps NFL & College football but since NBC only has Notre Dame football on Saturdays and NFL isn't until Sunday night, I'm sure NBC could show regular season games earlier in the year, maybe try and coincide the NHL game with whatever market the NFL game will be in that same day.  Also, all Stanley Cup Finals games should be on network television not just a couple.

*Like with my proposal for the NBA, have 4 nights each month called "family nights". That would mean prices from seats to concessions would be set at affordable prices so that a family of 4 could sit in really good seats and watch a game and not stuck in the nosebleed sections. The franchises can make more than enough money the rest of the season that it wouldn't hurt them to have these kind of nights and would help develop the fanbase so that everyone could enjoy the games.

*Continue to work and develop to minimze concussions.  Hockey has had its share of concussion related injuries even to top stars like Sidney Crosby.  I would make it a priority to be at the forefront of research to help treat and prevent on ice incidents where concussions could happen.

*Have more exposure of the Hockey Night in Canada crew in the U.S.  One of the joys of living in Seattle was I got CBC on my cable system and got to watch Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays.  I think it would be cool to have more interaction with the crew up there here in the states.  Would bring another side and be entertaining to fans here.

What do you think?  Feel free to leave comments on how you would change the NHL and go back and check out previous posts in the series.