Aside from the thrilling signings of Kevin Porter and Mark Mancari not much is going on in Hockey Heaven these days. So I thought today I would share my ideas for the new CBA. I hope the NHL and NHLPA to come to an agreement quickly so that we can have hockey in October. However deep down I think the season will start in November or December.

First and foremost I think the NHL needs to revisit the rulebook. The NHL needs to get back to calling interference and holding. Nothing makes more mad than seeing Stamkos dump the puck in and Hal Gill hold him up so his D partner can get the puck first. In 05-06 and 06-07 that was a penalty, and still states it is in the rule book. Scoring was at an all time low this season and granting teams power plays will increase the scoring.

Now to the different ideas, although this idea has been mentioned in other places, amnesty buyouts. This would allow teams to get out from under bad contracts and keep down the salary cap. This would be a one time buyout. Players like Leino, Gomez, and Thomas are all perfect examples of players teams could get out of the contract without penalty. This could also help bring down player salaries which are getting out of hand.

Another idea the NHL should explore is the legal circumvention of the cap. The front loading and long term contracts are driving up the salary cap and player contracts. Hossa, Parise, Suter, Kovalchuk, and Brad Richards are all examples of players that are very unlikely to play out the full term of their current deal. This new way of doing contracts allows for teams to buyout players after about 6 or 7 years with very little penalty to the cap or the player retires. Perhaps a term limit could be put in place.

The next idea I thought of that could help players like Suter and Parise from fleeing teams without any compensation is a franchise tag. The NFL has this and teams can "tag" one player on their roster set to become a UFA as their franchise player. With the franchise tag the player would get a one year deal at the average salary of the top 5 players at their position. Other rules can be put into place like for example the team can only franchise tag the same player two times. Something to keep the UFA market interesting still, but also help out the smaller markets.

The last thought I want to touch on is setting up a penalty/suspension system for hits to the head. The OHL has a rule set up to penalize any player that delivers a hit to the head regardless of intent. This helps protect the players more and helps against the concussion issue. On the suspension side setting up some kind of system could take away from the inconsistentcy of suspensions. For example a first time offender gets a minmum of two games, second time minimum of 5 and third time is a minimum of 10.

Thoughts or any other ideas?