- Daily Faceoff picked five PWHL rules and formats the NHL should copy
- The jailbreak goal wipes out a minor penalty the moment the shorthanded team scores
- Read below for the Gold Plan, pick-your-opponent playoffs and the trapezoid gripe
A shorthanded goal in the PWHL does more than swing momentum. It opens the penalty box door.
Tyler Kuehl of Daily Faceoff laid out five things the NHL should borrow from the women’s league on Wednesday, and the jailbreak goal sits at the top of the list. Score while killing a minor and the penalized player walks out early. The kill is over, the power play is dead, and the building erupts.
There have been 41 of them across three PWHL regular seasons, with another four in the playoffs.
Take a look at a handful from last season:
Next on the list is the Gold Plan, the anti-tanking draft format Adam Gold pitched back in 2012. Once a team is mathematically eliminated, it starts banking a separate pool of draft order points, and whoever collects the most wins the first overall pick.
It finally decided something last spring. Vancouver won its last two games while Seattle dropped two of its final three in regulation, and the Goldeneyes jumped the Torrent for the top selection. They spent it on Caroline Harvey.
Third is the one that would generate the most noise in April. The PWHL lets its regular season champion choose its own semifinal opponent out of the third and fourth seeds, and the pick keeps blowing up in the picker’s face.
Toronto selected Minnesota in 2024, coughed up a 2-0 series lead and watched the Frost win the first Walter Cup. Montreal chose Ottawa a year later and ran straight into Gwyneth Philips. The Victoire finished first again this season, took their shot and finally came away with the franchise’s first title.
Number four is the 3-2-1-0 points system used across international hockey. Three for a regulation win, two for winning past 60 minutes, one for losing past 60, nothing for a loss in regulation. Kuehl would push it further and knock shootout wins down to a single point.
The last item is personal for him. Kuehl played goal, and he had no patience for the trapezoid, which the PWHL never bothered to adopt.
“When the trapezoid was first tried out in the American Hockey League during the 2004-05 lockout, I was rather intrigued by the idea. However, 21 years later, it’s one of the dumbest rules the NHL has ever introduced.”
None of this is on Gary Bettman’s desk, and a league that argued about a coach’s challenge for years is not about to rip up its penalty rules overnight. But the PWHL keeps filling buildings like Madison Square Garden with these rules in place, and the jailbreak goal would sell itself the first time a penalty killer sprang a teammate in a Game 7.
