Opinion: We May Have Just Witnessed The Gold Plan's Minor Downsides

All Schedules Are Not Created Equal

There are multiple ways to look at this. Teams with a more difficult schedule earlier in the season may be eliminated earlier and have more time to accrue draft order points against weaker teams later.

On the other side of that coin, teams with weaker schedules early may stay in the race longer, and ultimately face a more difficult path to accumulating draft order points.

It could be more games on the road at the end of the season, more back-to-back games when those points matter, and teams could potentially be different points in their own years based on the large gaps between games PWHL teams often experience.

As the league gets bigger, the odds of teams having a vastly different strength of schedule, or teams ending their season on long home stands or road trips, will increase. It could impact the ability of teams to earn those draft order points. Of course it's impossible to create an identical schedule for all teams, but as the league continues to evolve, attempting to find balance throughout the season in scheduling will need to be considered as it could have draft order consequences.

More Concern For Playoff Teams

Forget tanking. It's what the Gold Plan is designed to prevent. The real issue that will impact the success of the Gold Plan is how playoff teams behave at the end of the season while facing non-playoff teams.

The prime example is the Minnesota Frost choosing to start Marlene Boissonnault in the final game of their season against the Vancouver Goldeneyes. Ultimately, Vancouver's win gave them the first overall pick. The decision to start Boissonnault wasn't one you'd see in any other professional league. In other hockey league's, Minnesota would have started who they anticipate to be their backup going into playoffs. Instead, they gave a game that had crucial implications for not only Vancouver, but also the Seattle Torrent, to a netminder who had not played a game in four years, and who over the last eight years, had only appeared in three games total, all as part of the PWHPA's showcase weekends. Vancouver was able to jump out to quick lead against Boissonnault scoring on their first shot of the game, and again on their fourth shot, and again on their seventh shot. Boissonnault settled in as the game went on, but it was enough to ensure Vancouver got a point, and inevitably won the first overall pick.

Meanwhile the Seattle Torrent's final game came against a highly motivated Ann-Renee Desbiens, who broke the PWHL single-season records for wins, save percentage, and goals against average this season having played the bulk of Montreal's games. Montreal started Desbiens knowing they needed the win to finish first. Only days before, when the necessity of a win wasn't the same as Boston had yet to climb back to the top, Montreal started Sandra Abstreiter against Vancouver to rest Desbiens. While Abstreiter has played more than Boissonnault, she spent all of last season as a third goalie in the league without playing a game, and this year finished 15th in the PWHL in save percentage, with the only goalies behind her in the crucial stat including Boissonnault, Kendra Woodland, Carly Jackson, Callie Shanahan, and Elaine Chuli.

Similarly, had their games matter more, it's likely players like Marie-Philip Poulin and Maureen Murphy, who both missed Montreal's match up with Vancouver would have returned sooner from LTIR. Instead, they were rested and waited to return only in time for Montreal's crucial draft order point match up against Seattle.

While the Gold Plan deters non-playoff teams from tanking, it doesn't deter their opponents from taking their foot off the gas to protect their rosters. Those decisions take draft order points partially out of the control of the teams working to achieve them.