Skip to content

NHL looking to tweak bye week structure next season

Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

The NHL has heard the complaints and plans to tweak how bye weeks are incorporated into next season's schedule.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly was on TSN 1040 radio in Vancouver on Tuesday and revealed that changes to how the bye weeks are implemented will be made in 2017-18, since clubs coming off their breaks this year have been, for the most part, dismal. He called this season's schedule a "learning process."

This season, bye weeks - a five-day break for each club - were instituted for January and February, and began on Jan. 1. Daly said next season the league will try to fit each team's time off in a two-week block.

"We're going to try and find two dedicated weeks and perhaps split the clubs up almost on a 50-50 basis, so that each group of clubs will be having their bye weeks at the same time," Daly said. "And then perhaps we can schedule a little bit better out of those bye weeks, in terms of clubs who've had rest versus clubs who haven't had rest and the like."

Teams are 4-12-4 coming off their bye, as opponents not on their break have for the most part feasted on teams that have been off.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox