The dog days of summer are dragging on, but not in baseball. No, it’s hockey that is currently in the doldrums of summer. The NHL offseason is currently so quiet that you can hear multiple pins dropping while waiting with bated breath for any crumb or morsel of interesting news. 

The good news is, September is just around the corner. The pre-season slate of games starts in under 30 days, and hopefully, there will be some actual news to report soon. So, until then, let’s take a gander at attempting to spice up The Offseason. 

First off, under the current calendar setup, the annual Entry Draft takes place the last week of June, as does the award ceremony. Then, on July 1st, free agency begins. Most teams hold a prospect development camp right around that same time as well. And then…nothing. By July 5th, the offseason is as quiet as a mouse and generally remains that way until a week or two before Training Camps open. 

That’s roughly two months where hockey is out of the public eye. For a sport desperately trying to hold off soccer in America and attempting to catch up to Baseball and Basketball, two months is too long for The NHL to go without anything going on. 

So, here’s what we propose. First, since The League insists on not awarding The Stanley Cup until the middle-to-end of June, let’s stop fighting them and accept it. Next, let’s move the awards ceremony to the Thursday after July 4th. The League can make a big deal out of the event. Really go all out and revamp the show into something that will draw plenty of eyeballs and fan attention. 

Next, move The Draft to the end of the third week of July. Figure Night One to be a Friday night, and then Day Two would be that Saturday. In 2025, that would have meant The Draft would have been July 18-19. Also, while we’re at it, bring back the centralized draft format! Sure, it’s pricier, but it’s worth it. Plus, with the new, spread-out offseason format, there’s no worry about getting back to each team’s respective city in time for free agency. 

Now, for the big one, move the start of free agency from July 1st to August 1st. Yes, we know that means having to rework all NHL-related contracts to move the start and end of each fiscal year, but that shouldn’t be too big an issue. 

This allows The League to bring back the legal tampering period before the start of free agency. The legal tampering period can start one week before the annual free agent extravaganza. So, in 2025, that would mean starting it on Friday, July 25th. This would allow teams to talk to free agents for one week before being able to sign anyone to a contract. That sounds like plenty of time and plenty of rumors, content and news, which is all a win for The League.

Then, Free Agency begins on August 1st. As it usually does, the frenzy of news will only last a couple of days before quieting down. So, let’s assume August 5th would be that new “cut-off date.”

If Training Camps don’t open until the end of the second week of September, then that gives us roughly five weeks of quiet as opposed to the current, roughly, 10 weeks of radio silence. Five weeks is certainly more manageable than 10. 

Let’s not forget, there are generally a few annual prospect tournaments, like Traverse City, for example, that can fill the quiet time between August 5th and September 14th. 

This new offseason format sounds a lot more enjoyable than the current one and is certain to keep fans and media outlets engaged with The League at a time when its only real competition would be MLB’s summertime slog. 

And that would be a win for The NHL.