Territorial Teams

[eva unit zero 271]

I had a crazy thought. What if NHL teams were only allowed to draft players from their own state/province, or a state/province/country that does not have an NHL team?

Following this, I wanted to see what the Wings would look like in this kind of NHL.

Rules:

Teams can elect to keep up to 3 players from current roster.

The team will then be filled out to 23 players using only "local" players, or players from the team's state/province. Teams who cannot fill their roster from 'local' players will be allowed to fill their roster from remaining unselected 'non-local' players.

Detroit's roster based on these rules would be, before any cap considerations:

G: Ryan Miller

G: Tim Thomas

D: Nicklas Lidstrom

D: Brian Rafalski

D: Tim Gleason

D: Andy Greene

D: James Wisniewski

D: Matt Hunwick

D: Matt Greene

F: Henrik Zetterberg

F: Pavel Datsyuk

F: Ryan Kesler

F: David Booth

F: Brian Rolston

F: Mike Modano

F: David Legwand

F: Mike Grier

F: Jim Slater

F: Chad Larose

F: Doug Weight

F: Andy Hilbert

F: TJ Hensick

F: Justin Abdelkader

Note: Drew Miller would be included in place of TJ Hensick, except he was born in Dover, NJ despite his family living in East Lansing; note older brother Ryan's birthplace of East Lansing.

Edited January 15, 2010 by eva unit zero

[Guest CaliWingsNut]

You've brought this up before (or something close to it), and I've always found it silly. First off, I grew up in Michigan, and don't feel like living there (are you sure they all like Detroit Winter?). It would require far greater investments by teams to allow for future potential. The game would turn into who can farm the best player. No matter how great an organization, yours is going to suck some years. This could fly in maybe the AHL or some other feeder league, but the NHL is about the best, and to have the best team, you just can't rely on only people from one place.

You'd be better off saying "Hey I made up this team, that will never-ever even potentially play together. What do you guys think?"

Edited January 15, 2010 by CaliWingsNut

[Yellowknife Redwing 57]

Alberta, BC and Ontario would be top 3 in the league every year without exception. It would make for a pretty lopsided league.

EDIT: Upon further thought, scratch Alberta and BC from that list. The Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs would both be nearly as stacked as the Canadian Olympic team.

Edited January 15, 2010 by Yellowknife Redwing

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

You've brought this up before (or something close to it), and I've always found it silly. First off, I grew up in Michigan, and don't feel like living there (are you sure they all like Detroit Winter?). It would require far greater investments by teams to allow for future potential. The game would turn into who can farm the best player. No matter how great an organization, yours is going to suck some years. This could fly in maybe the AHL or some other feeder league, but the NHL is about the best, and to have the best team, you just can't rely on only people from one place.

You'd be better off saying "Hey I made up this team, that will never-ever even potentially play together. What do you guys think?"

Maybe that is why he posed it as a "what if" question instead of saying it would be better...

[TSD 10]

An entire talent pool is being completely eliminated by doing this. Also, what wouldnt the rules for residency be? Say some great players were playing in Maine could they just "move" to Mass. and play for Boston? Or what about states with multiple teams i.e. New York (Buffalo, NYI, NYR), who gets who? if they have to share then their talent pool gets severely thinned.

The competition just wouldnt work, you would have some teams that had no business even being in the league, while some would look like allstar teams by comparrison.

[hckypete96 3]

lmao u think of a lot of weird stuff but ts is pretty cool

[Guest zackmorris]

You've brought this up before (or something close to it), and I've always found it silly. First off, I grew up in Michigan, and don't feel like living there (are you sure they all like Detroit Winter?). It would require far greater investments by teams to allow for future potential. The game would turn into who can farm the best player. No matter how great an organization, yours is going to suck some years. This could fly in maybe the AHL or some other feeder league, but the NHL is about the best, and to have the best team, you just can't rely on only people from one place.

You'd be better off saying "Hey I made up this team, that will never-ever even potentially play together. What do you guys think?"

I look at it as more of a fun thing to speculate over, rather than a realistic proposal. I could care less what he was suggesting.

It'd be interesting to see how other teams shape up as well.

Edited January 15, 2010 by zackmorris

[Shady Ultima 40]

What about the players from other COUNTRIES?

[55fan 5,133]

What about the players from other COUNTRIES?

The OP stipulated that teams can keep 3 players from their current rosters, and also that once a team had used up players from their state/province they could fill the roster with players from states/provinces/countries with no NHL team.

[Barrie 900]

You've brought this up before (or something close to it), and I've always found it silly. First off, I grew up in Michigan, and don't feel like living there (are you sure they all like Detroit Winter?). It would require far greater investments by teams to allow for future potential. The game would turn into who can farm the best player. No matter how great an organization, yours is going to suck some years. This could fly in maybe the AHL or some other feeder league, but the NHL is about the best, and to have the best team, you just can't rely on only people from one place.

You'd be better off saying "Hey I made up this team, that will never-ever even potentially play together. What do you guys think?"

Take is easy!

Back in the original 6 Montreal and Toronto signed a lot of local talent. Montreal was a team of French Canadians, where Toronto had many English speaking players from Ontario, making the rivalry that much better.

The Wings had a lot of their players come from the Canadian Prairies.

It's not that far off an idea.

[Barrie 900]

I had a crazy thought. What if NHL teams were only allowed to draft players from their own state/province, or a state/province/country that does not have an NHL team?

Following this, I wanted to see what the Wings would look like in this kind of NHL.

Rules:

Teams can elect to keep up to 3 players from current roster.

The team will then be filled out to 23 players using only "local" players, or players from the team's state/province. Teams who cannot fill their roster from 'local' players will be allowed to fill their roster from remaining unselected 'non-local' players.

Detroit's roster based on these rules would be, before any cap considerations:

G: Ryan Miller

G: Tim Thomas

D: Nicklas Lidstrom

D: Brian Rafalski

D: Tim Gleason

D: Andy Greene

D: James Wisniewski

D: Matt Hunwick

D: Matt Greene

F: Henrik Zetterberg

F: Pavel Datsyuk

F: Ryan Kesler

F: David Booth

F: Brian Rolston

F: Mike Modano

F: David Legwand

F: Mike Grier

F: Jim Slater

F: Chad Larose

F: Doug Weight

F: Andy Hilbert

F: TJ Hensick

F: Justin Abdelkader

Note: Drew Miller would be included in place of TJ Hensick, except he was born in Dover, NJ despite his family living in East Lansing; note older brother Ryan's birthplace of East Lansing.

Just a thought, with Detroit and Buffalo as boarder cities, I wonder how they'd look with some rights to Ontario? Say Detroit has everything from London Ontario to Windsor Ontario to draw from as well as Michigan. Buffalo can have Ontario that's East of Hamilton, along with Western New York.

[eva unit zero 271]

I can see there are some strong feelings here.

Obviously, this was a five-second thought in my head and I felt it would be an interesting thread (and I was right) but clearly, territories would have to be hashed out, with things such as Detroit and Buffalo and the Ontario border, or NYI vs NYR, and such like that. Also, the original stipulation of 'once you fill your roster with 'local' players, you are eligible to pick from remaining 'non-local' players would clearly have to be more detailed, as some areas have quite a few role players but few or no top-end players. Some sort of draft that included all teams but gave more picks to the weaker areas would be the best solution, probably.

[Kwame_Kilpatrick 0]

in the spanish premier soccer league, there is a team that only signs players from their region. the population of the region is about 2 million. in spain if you finish in the bottom three of the league you are relegated to a lower league, and this club has never been relegated in the history of their league which is almost 100 years. basically they have never been bad. this is proof that any club if they put effort in can be great. also this club has very passionate support, because the players are local and most were raised by the club. imagine how passioante the support would be for home grown players

[Green Wing 26]

in the spanish premier soccer league, there is a team that only signs players from their region. the population of the region is about 2 million. in spain if you finish in the bottom three of the league you are relegated to a lower league, and this club has never been relegated in the history of their league which is almost 100 years. basically they have never been bad. this is proof that any club if they put effort in can be great. also this club has very passionate support, because the players are local and most were raised by the club. imagine how passioante the support would be for home grown players

That's Atletico Bilbao isn't it? Only sign Basque region players?

It's an interesting idea for sure.

Edited January 17, 2010 by Green Wing

[joshy207 156]

I'd love to see a tournament with teams like this, even if it's only American and Canadian teams. Maybe not based on NHL teams' locations, but by USA Hockey's and Hockey Canada's districts. Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Mass., and New England would be strong, as would most of the Canadian regions.

[Kwame_Kilpatrick 0]

yes it is athletic club bilbao

it would be good for the north, minnesota, michigan, new york, maybe massachusetts and some other new england states would be fine but texas would be awful. brian leetch would have to come out of retirement for the stars