With the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) postseason fast approaching, the league’s exciting playoff format and draft process have proved it is committed to providing the very best on-ice product in a way the NHL hasn’t.
The women’s hockey league will implement an innovative playoff format that will include the top four teams in the regular-season standings, with the first-place finisher earning the opportunity to select its semifinal opponent.
On May 1, PWHL Toronto clinched the first overall spot in the standings with a win over PWHL Minnesota and will choose their first round opponent in the inaugural PWHL playoffs.
Teams no longer in the playoff hunt are still incentivized to remain competitive down the final stretch of the season. This is because the first-overall pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft is awarded to the team that earns the most points following its elimination from playoff contention, essentially abolishing the practice of tanking.
The draft format is derived from a late-2000s proposal by statistician Adam Gold, who devised the “Draft Order of Selection by Mathematical Elimination.”
In the NHL, the first-place finishers in each of the league’s two conferences are locked in to play their conference’s second wild-card team in the first round of the playoffs. More often than not, wild-card teams enter the postseason with the fewest points.
As for the NHL’s draft format, it uses a weighted draft lottery to determine the top 16 picks, with the lowest-finishing team being awarded the best odds (25.5 per cent) to select first overall.
By straying away from a draft lottery altogether, the PWHL is encouraging competitive play instead of rewarding bottom teams with favourable draft odds.
“Winning is prioritized for playoff positioning — and non-playoff teams have to earn the first overall draft selection, rather than depend on a lottery or repeated losses to improve their chances of securing the top pick,” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL senior vice-president of hockey operations, in a media release.
Tanking has been widely criticized as a major flaw in the NHL’s draft system, as teams are incentivized to ice a less competitive team in the hopes of selecting higher in the draft.
While the PWHL is privileged to be starting from scratch with only six franchises in its inaugural season, its willingness to be bold with its format and stray away from a flawed blueprint is commendable.
It ensured that PWHL New York, who was eliminated from playoff contention on April 24 in a loss against PWHL Montreal, has continued to play meaningful hockey throughout the final stretch of the season and has since clinched the first overall draft pick.
Not to be overlooked is the fact that the format is also more likely to sustain attendance numbers across the league. Fans will be more amenable to paying for tickets to see competitive and high-stakes hockey even as teams are eliminated from playoff contention.
New York put on an exciting performance in their first overall draft pick clinching game against PWHL Ottawa on April 30, scoring four unanswered goals in the second period, despite having no hopes of making the playoffs. Further, the showdown commanded an audience of 2,992 fans at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
That’s important for a young league looking to find sustainable revenue in its first season.
In comparison, the NHL has a long history of teams suffering at the box office as a result of uncompetitive rosters.
The Chicago Blackhawks finished 32nd out of 32 teams last season in an obvious effort to tank for Connor Bedard, the prospective first-overall selection for the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. Not coincidentally, attendance at the United Center, which was famous for its 13-year sellout streak, fell far below capacity during their uncompetitive season.
The PWHL won’t have that problem.
As Hefford said in the press release, the PWHL has a winning format that “rewards competitiveness, parity, and integrity across the league throughout the regular-season.”
Job well done, PWHL.
Featured image provided by PWHL.
