Quoting: rangersandislesfan
It makes sense but the question i've been asking the whole time is why do you care if there are big deadline deals? I completely understand HOW it creates less deals, but what's so important about big deals at the deadline. All you've said about this is that it "adds to the craziness of the season" and it "draws its own fan interest". Everything else you said was about something i completely understand already ... I don't think the NHL should care how many deadline deals there are when looking at how many teams make the playoffs. The number of teams in the playoffs will change the trade deadline but i don't think the NHL will make whichever decision makes more or less deadline deals happen. For me, i like the 4 rounds, best of seven, 16 teams. That's why i don't think they should switch to 20 teams.
My understanding is that in the NHL, teams generally follow a sinusoidal success curve. they go through low points during a rebuild (and get high draft picks), gradually improve as their young players develop, then have the most success when their core is in their prime (while getting lower draft picks), then begin to gradually decline as their core players age (and the lower quality of draft picks cant replace them as quickly), and then they go into another rebuild (and begin to get high draft picks again). The cycle then repeats itself. Obviously this isnt always the case since high draft picks dont always become the best players, and free agency signings as well as trades will interfere with the teams success over time. But
in general, a sine wave can describe a teams success over time. Each teams sine curve has a different phase shift (eg. some teams may be in rebuild mode while other teams are in win-now mode) and different frequency (eg. rate of rebuild). With that being said...
@hanson493 is basically saying that more deadline deals leads to quicker rebuilds and roster turnover (as he has explained in detail previously).
This means that the frequency of that sine wave is higher, and in a shorter time span, more teams will be set up to win. This creates more competition for the league and prevents powerhouses for dominating the league for years, and prevents teams at the bottom of the league from staying there.
That is how more deadline deals, and hence a 16 team playoff format, benefits the league