I already said i completely understand HOW it creates less deadline deals. My question is why you think it's important to have more deadline deals.

I ALREADY SAID COMPETITIVE BALANCE. Holy crap RAIF lol. 3rd time ive said it now.

So, if the top teams add more players to their roster that makes it more exciting? I get why teams want to do this but it makes it less exciting for fans IMO ... if teams like CBJ make those moves, though, it makes it a lot more interesting. But i don't really care if the top teams do because it's so unpredictable.

You arent thinking about it correctly here. Because there are less teams that can reach the playoffs right now, there are more teams that will oblige to selling players for a quicker rebuild. If you add more teams to the playoff hunt, less teams want to sell because they might still be in the race come the deadline. If columbus is already at the 7/8 seed they arent getting duchene or dzingel. Trade deadline draws its own fan interest. as a playoff hopeful you are seeing if your team is going to do anything to increase its odds at winning the cup. all about supply and demand. If 24-26 teams are still in it at the TDL only 6-8 teams would be sellers. as opposed to if only 16-20 teams are in it at the TDL, you have 12-16 teams that can be sellers. This allows for more "big trades" quicker rebuilds/roster turnover. Its not about the top teams getting more stacked. its more about the middling teams not making moves and the bottom teams holding onto assets. You essentially eliminate the rental player trades by adding more competition.

essentially im saying if you expand the playoffs from 16 to 20. cbj doesnt trade for duchene or dzingel. rosters will stay more intact and there will be less movement. FA will still be hectic but there will definitely be less in season player movement if more teams get added to the playoff. This adds to the craziness of the season. It helps bad teams get better faster and it helps good teams get better short term. With 20 teams in... the top 6-8 would be the only teams buying and the bottom 6-8 would be the only teams selling. if that makes sense.

It makes sense but the question i've been asking the whole time is why do you care if there are big deadline deals? I completely understand HOW it creates less deals, but what's so important about big deals at the deadline. All you've said about this is that it "adds to the craziness of the season" and it "draws its own fan interest". Everything else you said was about something i completely understand already ... I don't think the NHL should care how many deadline deals there are when looking at how many teams make the playoffs. The number of teams in the playoffs will change the trade deadline but i don't think the NHL will make whichever decision makes more or less deadline deals happen. For me, i like the 4 rounds, best of seven, 16 teams. That's why i don't think they should switch to 20 teams.

My understanding is that in the NHL, teams generally follow a sinusoidal success curve. they go through low points during a rebuild (and get high draft picks), gradually improve as their young players develop, then have the most success when their core is in their prime (while getting lower draft picks), then begin to gradually decline as their core players age (and the lower quality of draft picks cant replace them as quickly), and then they go into another rebuild (and begin to get high draft picks again). The cycle then repeats itself. Obviously this isnt always the case since high draft picks dont always become the best players, and free agency signings as well as trades will interfere with the teams success over time. But in general, a sine wave can describe a teams success over time. Each teams sine curve has a different phase shift (eg. some teams may be in rebuild mode while other teams are in win-now mode) and different frequency (eg. rate of rebuild). With that being said...

@hanson493 is basically saying that more deadline deals leads to quicker rebuilds and roster turnover (as he has explained in detail previously). This means that the frequency of that sine wave is higher, and in a shorter time span, more teams will be set up to win. This creates more competition for the league and prevents powerhouses for dominating the league for years, and prevents teams at the bottom of the league from staying there.

That is how more deadline deals, and hence a 16 team playoff format, benefits the league

Okay, i mostly get it now ... also i prefer the playoffs themselves as a 4-round playoff with 16 teams.

I agree 4 rounds and 16 teams makes it a better format too since there would be no bye weeks or anything

Also, i guess the trade deadline is kind of about trades ... the draft, for example, isn't about trades (other than maybe some teams moving up and down). Every year at the draft there are always a ton of trade rumours and not much trade action ... i mean, the draft isn't really about trades at all. Sometimes you see a trade or two at the draft but it's really about drafting players ... the trade deadline, however, is really about trades ... deadline day is the day to see what trades happen. I don't watch the draft to see if any trades happen (and if so, which trades), I watch to see who goes where. Sure, if there's a trade or signing around the draft, i'm interested in hearing the news, but that's not why i watch the draft. But i check for updates on trade deadline to see which trades happen, because that's really the point of trade deadline day. It's about trades. But i don't really care if there are a lot of trades or not ... i just check because i know there are going to be trades, and i want to know which trades. But you made some good points.

Not yet, but IMO it is on the horizon. When the league expands to 36 from 32 (and they will within the next 10-12 years), they'll have to expand the playoffs to suit owners not happy with a less than 50% chance of playoff home dates. At that point though, you're looking at four divisions/conferences of nine teams. Whether it's a wildcard playoff between 4 and 5 (more likely) or the division winner gets a bye (less likely because, money), would remain to be seen

If it expands to 34 i'd still go with 16 teams in the playoffs.

50% would be the cutoff for me. 16 teams is fine for now, but if the league expands past 32 teams, it'll have to go to 20.

I don't think it should go to 20 for now. The playoffs should have some prestige and you should need to be a good team to get there. We already see some teams sneaking in with barely over 500 records with the current format.

Now, if we want to change the format and take the top 8 teams from each conference instead of the division/wildcard format, that's a different discussion

I could take it or leave it at 16 to be honest. Once the league gets to 36 or the eventual 40, I think 20 is an inevitability, possibly 24, although 24 might take an unlikely schedule reduction to get that done.

I don't know if i see the league expanding past 32 ... if it gets to 36-40 then maybe more but if it's 34 teams i'd be fine with 16. It's less than half, but not by very much.

nfl has 32 teams and does a 12 team playoff. nhl should leave it at 16 regardless.

Right on the money.

I mean, if it expands to 40 teams or something they could add more in the playoffs, but i just hope they don't expand to 40 teams.

I don't think they could sustain 40 teams. That's about 200 more players at the NHL level.

Not sure there are even another 8 viable markets.

I don't think it'll expand to 40.

i cant see 40 teams. I think 32 is pretty much it. Even 34 is a stretch. but at 34 teams i still only want 16 team playoff. if it gets to 40 (theres no way it does) but if it does then maybe think about expanding it. but ide rather less teams make the playoffs. not more.