Rod Brind’Amour, head coach of the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, says the NHL should eliminate the preseason altogether.
“Guys just want to play. Guys just want to drop the puck and start for real,” Brind’Amour said during an appearance on TSN’s “Overdrive” on Monday. “They don’t like practicing — nobody does.”
The comments come as the league’s newest collective bargaining agreement already trims the preseason from six games to four, with those two extra dates moved into an expanded 84-game regular season. Brind’Amour says that’s still not short enough.
His argument: rosters are effectively set before the games even start. “It’s not like even I remember, there were always spots available,” he said. “There were 10 guys maybe that you knew were on the team, then there were a couple of guys that were fighting for a spot here. Maybe even a goalie spot might’ve been open. That doesn’t happen now, hardly ever. The team’s picked.”
Preseason games still serve one clear purpose beyond roster evaluation: getting NHL hockey into markets that don’t otherwise get it. On Monday, the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers played a neutral-site game in Hershey, Pennsylvania, while the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens faced off in Trois-Rivières, Quebec.
Those games offer fans in smaller markets a cheaper way to see NHL talent in person, and they’re often used as a tool to build new fan bases. But with most rosters locked in well before opening night and star players frequently sitting out preseason action, Brind’Amour’s case for trimming the schedule further has real weight behind it.
