Hey everyone!
I've always been bothered how the ECL is called the "European Championship League", But there's always 2 winning teams per year? Doesn't quite feel that much like a European championship, at least for me. I've talked about this for many years but I feel like the community is getting bigger and naming 1 European Champion per year would be smart thing to do, for the players + for the people watching.
My suggestion:
- 1 ECL every NHL. But make the season last 2x longer. So For Elite let's change the 30 games to 60 etc etc..
- In the middle of the season: Have the same promotion/relegation system in place as we do now, so It still takes the same time to get promoted/relegated between divisions.
- After the promotions/relegations let's have a cup type tournament for every division, let's call this the "ECL Cup". Where we have a BO5 playoffs for each divisions playoff teams at that moment to determine the "ECL Cup" winner for each division. OR this "Cup" could also be split into 2, so combined playoff bracket from let's say Elite/Pro divisions best teams and making 1 big playoff bracket (of course more teams from the higher divisions would be added). and 1 cup for lite/neo/core (you could go into a lot of different directions with this).
- After we have the "ECL Cup" winners, all the standings in the divisions are reset, and the divisions continue the same as we have now. And at the end of it all, we have all the divisions champions in place for that NHL, Elite's winner can call themselves the European Champion.
Similar system is in place in Finland's junior leagues (without the cup thing) 😀
Let me know what you think. Would love to get feedback + opinions.