11-16-2020, 01:12 PMartermis Wrote: Throughout my entire term as IIHF commish, I routinely looked at what other possible tournaments along the lines of an Olympics we could have.

So many older users speak of the S10 Olympics as better than any other IIHF tournament back in the day, and while things have changed, I wanted to recapture that somehow.

Ultimately, it always came back to one question: how do we make the Olympics different enough to warrant them?

Is less team and a different title enough? I wanted a more drastic change, something that sets the Olympics apart.

iirc we looked at changing eligibility for Olympic seasons but that didn't go very far.

Ultimately, in this version of the idea, I think a mid-season tournament is rough, as demonstrated by the recent WJC and the S20's friendlies schedule. Granted, the IIHF was only recently founded/reformed in that second example, and it's been a long while, and they were just friendlies, but they felt like they took the wind out of the sails. I think the off-season is prime real estate for international hockey of all levels since nothing else is going on, there is no other team to cheer for except your nation.

As for who qualifies, yeah we were looking at a system where ranking was taken into consideration (since it's based on 4 years anyway) and perhaps gold and silver medal winners automatically qualify or something similar. Also, for the teams who don't qualify, a tournament could be run for them. I can't imagine if they'd be interested or not, but engagement for those teams is important I'd say.

I get a feeling you might be going for the realism/complete experience with this, which isn't the way I governed the IIHF, but I haven't been in charge for a while so I'm just throwing some thoughts out there.

11-16-2020, 04:01 PMFlappyGiraffe Wrote:

11-16-2020, 01:12 PMartermis Wrote: Throughout my entire term as IIHF commish, I routinely looked at what other possible tournaments along the lines of an Olympics we could have.

So many older users speak of the S10 Olympics as better than any other IIHF tournament back in the day, and while things have changed, I wanted to recapture that somehow.

Ultimately, it always came back to one question: how do we make the Olympics different enough to warrant them?

Is less team and a different title enough? I wanted a more drastic change, something that sets the Olympics apart.

iirc we looked at changing eligibility for Olympic seasons but that didn't go very far.

Ultimately, in this version of the idea, I think a mid-season tournament is rough, as demonstrated by the recent WJC and the S20's friendlies schedule. Granted, the IIHF was only recently founded/reformed in that second example, and it's been a long while, and they were just friendlies, but they felt like they took the wind out of the sails. I think the off-season is prime real estate for international hockey of all levels since nothing else is going on, there is no other team to cheer for except your nation.

As for who qualifies, yeah we were looking at a system where ranking was taken into consideration (since it's based on 4 years anyway) and perhaps gold and silver medal winners automatically qualify or something similar. Also, for the teams who don't qualify, a tournament could be run for them. I can't imagine if they'd be interested or not, but engagement for those teams is important I'd say.

I get a feeling you might be going for the realism/complete experience with this, which isn't the way I governed the IIHF, but I haven't been in charge for a while so I'm just throwing some thoughts out there.

I've always been a proponent for starting IIHF during the playoff semis, much like how the IIHF runs alongside the NHL playoffs in real life. Would keep it fresh as you will have different players not be eligible each season, and give opportunity to some newer players to make their team earlier than expected. Then you could do the Olympics every 4 seasons as a true best on best during an offseason with no players busy playing in the SHL.

11-16-2020, 04:01 PMFlappyGiraffe Wrote:

11-16-2020, 01:12 PMartermis Wrote: Throughout my entire term as IIHF commish, I routinely looked at what other possible tournaments along the lines of an Olympics we could have.

So many older users speak of the S10 Olympics as better than any other IIHF tournament back in the day, and while things have changed, I wanted to recapture that somehow.

Ultimately, it always came back to one question: how do we make the Olympics different enough to warrant them?

Is less team and a different title enough? I wanted a more drastic change, something that sets the Olympics apart.

iirc we looked at changing eligibility for Olympic seasons but that didn't go very far.

Ultimately, in this version of the idea, I think a mid-season tournament is rough, as demonstrated by the recent WJC and the S20's friendlies schedule. Granted, the IIHF was only recently founded/reformed in that second example, and it's been a long while, and they were just friendlies, but they felt like they took the wind out of the sails. I think the off-season is prime real estate for international hockey of all levels since nothing else is going on, there is no other team to cheer for except your nation.

As for who qualifies, yeah we were looking at a system where ranking was taken into consideration (since it's based on 4 years anyway) and perhaps gold and silver medal winners automatically qualify or something similar. Also, for the teams who don't qualify, a tournament could be run for them. I can't imagine if they'd be interested or not, but engagement for those teams is important I'd say.

I get a feeling you might be going for the realism/complete experience with this, which isn't the way I governed the IIHF, but I haven't been in charge for a while so I'm just throwing some thoughts out there.

I've always been a proponent for starting IIHF during the playoff semis, much like how the IIHF runs alongside the NHL playoffs in real life. Would keep it fresh as you will have different players not be eligible each season, and give opportunity to some newer players to make their team earlier than expected. Then you could do the Olympics every 4 seasons as a true best on best during an offseason with no players busy playing in the SHL.