One-minute minors in OT? Soccer-style penalty shots? NHL Rules Court returns

All rise, Rules Court is back in session.

It’s been a while. The last time we did this was during the Olympics, when we looked at the differences between international hockey and the NHL. The last time we opened the court up to your proposals was almost a full year ago. It’s time to see what cases you’d like to bring.

As always, you send us your ideas for new or adjusted NHL rules, and our panel of three esteemed judges – Shayna Goldman, Sean McIndoe and Sean Gentille – will give them a yes or no. Convince at least two of us, and your rule is sent to the league office and immediately made official. (Note: That last part does not happen.)

This time around, you want to talk shot clocks, goalie fights and mouth pieces. Let’s see how many of you could make your case.

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How many long contracts are too many? Revisiting the Red Arrow Index

A few years ago, I had what I thought was a neat idea: The red arrow Index, a simple measurement of how many long-term contract commitments each team had. The name came from Cap Friendly, then the most widely used contract tracker, and the way it would use a red arrow to denote any contract that was too long to fit on one screen. The idea was to see what we could learn, and what patterns (if any) we could find, and then revisit the idea annually to track how team approaches changed.

Then I forgot about it. Look, I’m not sure what to tell you, my kids showed me how to use Tik Tok a few years ago and I haven’t had an attention span since that day.

That four-year gap is going to cause a few issues, not least of which is that Cap Friendly doesn’t exist anymore. There are several strong alternatives, including Puckpedia, which I’ll be using today. Puckpedia doesn’t use a red arrow for too-long-to-fit contracts, because they hate fun and whimsy. But the general concept – player signed to deal with six years or more left to run, including this year – remains in place. So let’s see how much things have changed over the years.

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NHL weekend rankings: Jets hope, Rangers disaster, plus five early storylines I'm not buying yet

We’re two weeks into the season, and it’s too early to know anything. But it’s not too early to know what you don’t know. Or at least, what you’re pretty sure you know. That you don’t know.

You know?

Cool, glad we’re all on the same page. Here are five early-season storylines that I’m not buying. Or at least, not yet.

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The Dionne Trophy: a fake award for best season by a player about to switch teams

Our fake trophy case needs some new additions. The last time we came up with a new award to retroactively hand out, we were waiting on the puck to drop on a Western Conference final we all knew the Avalanche would easily win, and the Sabres had just pumped eight goals past a Canadiens team that was on its heels heading into game seven. Oops.

That fake award was the Maruk Trophy, given to each year’s playoff MVP among teams that were eliminated in round one. It joined previous pretend honors like the Jimmy Carson Trophy (for best sophomore season), the Ray Bourque Trophy (for best final season) and the Teemu Selanne Trophy (for best combined season and Olympics). None of these actually exist, but they should, and they will once I'm elected commissioner.

So yeah, we need some new blood. And that’s going to be the theme of today’s award, as we present the Marcel Dionne Trophy for best season by a player who’s about to switch teams in the offseason. We’re not worried about how the change happens – trades, free agency, and expansion drafts are all in play. To qualify, a player simply has to have been on one team’s roster for their final game of the season in question, and a different one on opening night of the following one. And we’re only worried about what they did in that last year with their old team; if they were great that year but then stunk on their new team, that’s fine.

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Nobody understands the Sabres, and other lessons from the NHL prediction contest

We’re barely a week into the NHL season, and you’ve already seen my team tiers, my oddly specific predictions, my most intriguing players, and my first batch of power rankings. Oh, and hopefully you’ve signed up for the newsletter.

Are you sick of me yet? You should be. So I’m taking the day off.

Instead, this post is about you, and what you think. Specifically, it’s about the 1,258 of you who entered this year’s prediction contest. That number was the highest in the contest’s seven year history, by the way, so thanks to everyone who spread the word.

It’s obviously way too early to start keeping score. It’s only been a week, and history tells us that most of your entries won’t be completely dead in the water until it’s been two weeks. But one of my favorite things about the contest is that it doubles as an informal survey of what hockey fans are expecting. There are usually some interesting insights to be found in there.

So today, we’re going to dive into those 1,258 entries and see what they tell us about what expectations look like among the smartest hockey fans out there. And also you.

>> Read the full post for free at The Athletic