NHL Case Study: Impact of the Point System on Competitive Balance

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) point system changes on competitive balance. The rules have inflated the point percentage of teams where a team with a point percentage of 0.559 would not qualify for the playoffs (e.g., 2016-17 season) changing the perception of competitive balance in the league. This thesis runs an empirical analysis using several regression models to analyze the data sets to discuss the impact on game strategies, team attendance, revenue and team valuation. The results show that these rule changes have impacted the rankings in the league, influenced the number of ties, and had an influence on the performance of the league. Interestingly, the results imply that the league has become more competitively balanced in terms of outcomes of the games but not in terms of financial performance of the teams.