As training camp begins in the NHL, most of the spotlight is still shining on the announcements regarding the 2016 World Cup of Hockey set to take place a year from now. With this highly anticipated tournament occurring right before the beginning of the regular season, how will the scheduling of training camp and rookie camp be factored in?
Puck Prose
In an FAQ article released by the NHL, the question asked concerning training camp was, “Will teams stage training camps and play exhibition games prior to the 2016 World Cup of Hockey?” The answer to that question was, “Yes. Information on locations and dates for these events will be announced when finalized.”
When putting things into perspective for the Boston Bruins specifically, their training camp starts on September 17th this year with their first regular season game set for October 8th. By these margins, if training camp were to occur before the World Cup of Hockey next year, which also begins on September 17th, the Boston Bruins first day of training camp, in 2016, would be on August 27th.
On top of that, there is the rookie camp to take into account. This year, the rookie camp went from September 10th to the beginning of training camp, September 17th. That means that, next year, rookie camp should start on August 20th. This may not a perfect scheduling assumption, but it is based on the amount of days used for this year’s camps, so it should not be too far off from the truth.
Q: “Will teams stage training camps and play exhibition games prior to the 2016 World Cup of Hockey?”
A: “Yes. Information on locations and dates for these events will be announced when finalized.” – World Cup of Hockey
There have also been recent articles on the roster projections for next year’s tournament’s teams. Those mentioned from the Boston Bruins were Patrice Bergeron (Canada), David Krejci (Czech Republic), David Pastrnak (Czech Republic), Zdeno Chara (Europe), Dennis Seidenberg (Europe), Joonas Kemppainen (Finland), Tuukka Rask (Finland), Malcolm Subban (North America) and Loui Eriksson (Sweden). For the full projected rosters of each team, visit the World Cup of Hockey website.
If these nine Bruins players were selected to their respective teams next year, that would leave the rest of the Boston Bruins roster practicing with half of a team. This will have a great impact on perfecting certain drills, developing team chemistry, dealing with special teams etc. Obviously, these matters will be addressed during the camps prior to the tournament, but it will still have a negative impact on the team working as a full unit during the first games of the season.
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If preparation for the NHL’s camps were to start in mid August, it can be argued that other schedule changes could be made aside from the camps. Will the free agency period or the draft days happen sooner? Will the buyout and arbitration deadlines happen sooner as well? Or will training camp and rookie camp schedules be condensed? Maybe even the playoff schedule becomes more condensed, heaven forbid.
It is a very exciting time in the world of hockey right now, and by no means am I petitioning against this great tournament. I am just bringing up some potential issues that I’d rather see dealt with sooner rather than later. It is unknown how much this tournament will impact the overall scheduling that makes up an NHL year, but you can be certain that drastic changes will be made somewhere. Whatever happens, it can be assured that the months of September and August will never be the same.
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