Nearly 21 years ago, Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull gave THN an exclusive – 10 ways he wanted to change hockey. Take a look at this THN Archive file and see how many things you agree with Hull about.

For as long as the NHL has been in operation, its top players have had a say in the product that is hockey’s top league. And nearly 21 years ago, superstar sniper Brett Hull made headlines across the world of the sport when he penned a cover story feature titled, straight-forwardly, “10 Ways I’d Change The Game.”

In the story from THN’s January 31, 2003, edition – Vol. 56, Issue 21 – Hull collaborated with then-THN senior writer Mike Brophy to make very specific suggestions on how to improve the NHL. Some of his proposed changes have to do with on-ice rules, while other suggestions concern the future of the league in places like Canada. 

He may have changed his mind on some of these thoughts in the two decades since this was published, but take a look below and see if you agree. It aligned with The Hockey News changing the look of our magazine in 2003 as well, as Hull noted.

(And to read more stories like this one, simply unlock access to THN’s 76-year archive by subscribing to our magazine.)

Hockey My Way

By Brett Hull

Vol. 56, Issue 21, Jan. 31, 2003

If The Hockey News can change its look, so can the game of hockey.

I have been an outspoken critic of NHL hockey for years, because I love the sport and feel compelled to share my feelings – especially when I think the product can be better.

In many ways, I’m a hockey traditionalist. That said, I think there are several changes that should be made to improve the game.

For me, one of the biggest problems is the lack of scoring. Isn’t that what people really want to see – more goals? I built my career on scoring, but now it’s a battle of inner demons for me. In my mind I’m supposed to score, but I’m not expected to (by the coaches). I fight the demons in my head, wondering why I can’t score any more. I can’t get open or the puck isn’t going in…or both.

It’s nuts. It’s killing me. I wake up every day and wonder, why can’t I score? I’m like a dog that has been named Stay. When I’m on the ice all 1 hear is, “Come Stay…Stay there…Come Stay.”

I ask, “Why don’t I score?” and the coaches say, “You don’t have to score, just play good ‘D.’ You’re working hard, you’re in great position, we don’t need you to score.”

I hate it!

The following are not just my ideas. When I agreed to write this story, I consulted a lot of people in the game I respect and got their input. There is no particular order to my suggestions (though No. 10 is critical).

1. GO BACK TO THE ONE-REF SYSTEM: The two-ref system doesn’t work. It’s horrible. They get in the way and are afraid to make calls that might offend the other guy. You match a young ref with an older, more experienced ref and the young guy is intimidated. If he steps on the older guy’s toes, he’ll hear about it in the dressing room.

The league should set up cameras in every rink and police what is happening behind the play if that’s what it is worried about. When guys start getting fined and suspended for infractions behind the play, they’ll stop.

2. CRACK DOWN ON DIVING: Diving in the NHL is out of control. I think everybody embellishes a bit if you’re getting a good tug, but some guys are ridiculous. It’s embarrassing and completely cheapens our product. Players who blatantly dive should be fined or suspended.

3. FOSTER RIVALRIES: For starters, there should be more games played between Original Six teams. Those are the games that generate a lot of interest around the league. Also, there should be more matchups between potential and budding rivalries. Fans are not coming out in some cities, but if you encouraged and then played up rivalries, you would get more fans at those games. What about an annual “Rivals Weekend” where rival teams play a home-and-home series? The NHL could sell it, just like they do in college football. It would be easy to do and it’s a great way for the league to focus attention on itself.

4. NO MAXIMUM CURVE FOR STICKS: I think we either have to eliminate the illegal stick rule or make the goalies go back to the old mask and smaller equipment. You can’t hurt them. Right now the maximum curve allowed is half-an-inch. That’s barely a curve at all. It’s ridiculous. My dad (Bobby Hull) had a stick that had a 21/2 inch curve and goalies feared his shot. There is absolutely no fear now. The league limited the curve to save the goalies – but now the goalies are impenetrable. Their equipment is huge. I swear to God I have taken some of my hardest shots in practice and hit Manny Legace in the shoulder and I’d ask him, ‘Did that hurt?’ He’d say, ‘I didn’t even feel it.’

The goalies are so stinking big, that’s why there aren’t as many goals. People talk about making the nets bigger; why not just make the goalie equipment smaller? If I took 100 quality shots I think I should score on, I bet NHL goalies would stop 50 just because their equipment is so big. The other 50 they would actually have to move to make the save.

5. GET RID OF INSTIGATOR RULE: You may think it’s a step back or an archaic way of thinking, but hockey was a better and safer game when the players policed themselves. I’m not a fighter; I’m a goal-scorer and players who score and set up goals should be allowed to do what they do without fear of some idiot trying to end their career. I think if you get rid of the instigator rule, guys whose role it is to stop scorers would think long and hard about the approach they take knowing if they step over the line, they’ll be held accountable.

I talked to Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay and he told me that when he played, the game was so honest. It’s not that way any more. There is absolutely no respect. Nowadays, when you do something to a player, it’s not like you’re going to get beat up. Instead, you’ll get hit from behind. Or if someone hits your team’s best player, then someone on your team is going to cheapshot the other team’s best player. Today, players get blindsided and get hurt by opponents who are trying to get even for something that happened to a teammate.

It’s a revenge free-for-all instead of going after the guy who started it. Maybe if the guy knew he was going to be held accountable, he wouldn’t take a run at the other team’s star.

Also, the league really has to crack down on guys who wear visors, but who always instigate altercations and are basically a pain in the ass. Get rid of the instigator rule and after those guys get throttled once or twice, maybe they’ll change the way they play.

6. MAKE HOCKEY A PUCK-CONTROL GAME: I don’t know exactly how to do this, but let’s start by limiting the number of times a team can flip the puck out of its zone.

You should have to pass the puck out or carry it out, at least when playing at full strength.

If somebody deliberately ices the puck, they should be called for delay of game. Any time somebody shoots the puck over the glass and it’s not deflected, same thing, delay of game. There have to be restrictions on what players can do so it makes them think, “Oh, I’ve got to keep control of the puck and not just get rid of it. I have to make a pass or carry the puck.”

7. INTRODUCE HURRY-UP FACEOFFS I know what you’re thinking, they did that this year, right? Don’t kid yourself. I haven’t hurried to a faceoff since the pre-season. The linesmen just wait and wait.

The first games we played were around two hours and 10 minutes and it was like, ‘Yeah, this is great!’ Now it seems like we’re back to long games again. If you’re going to do something, do it. I don’t want to hear about it and hear about it and then have it fall by the wayside when the season starts.

Look at the obstruction crackdown; it’s totally gone and the referees never called it properly in the first place. It was supposed to be policed in the neutral zone, but any time you touched a guy in your own end you got a penalty and when you touched a guy in the neutral zone it wasn’t a penalty.

8. NO MORE POINT TO THE LOSING TEAM: If you lose in overtime, you’ve still lost, so why do you get a point? To me, that’s stupid. Why not give both teams a point at the end of regulation and go home? Or give nobody a point if it’s a tie.

Truth be known, I have no problem with games ending in a tie. It makes the end of the game more exciting. The game’s over, it’s tied, go home.

Now when there’s five minutes left and it’s tied, you say, “Let’s not do anything because we can go to overtime and win it playing 4-on-4. We’ll put our best players out there and we’ll have a better chance at winning.”

9. PROTECT CANADIAN TEAMS: We have to do something to keep the NHL healthy in Canada. The game cannot survive without Canada. That’s why I believe with the new collective bargaining agreement, the players and owners need to have a little side deal to save the NHL in Canada.

I don’t think players are going to get away without a salary cap. We’ll get away without a hard cap, but we’re going to have to agree to some sort of luxury cap and we should take some of that money and put it towards the Canadian teams. To do that, the Canadian teams need to be able to prove they aren’t doctoring their books to make it look like they are losing money when they aren’t.

And when a club gets that money, it has to actually use it to make the team better. Don’t pay it out in dividends to shareholders or use it for profit.

The game has to be in Canada. To me, Canada is hockey.

10. GET A NEW CBA DONE: This is an absolute must. The greatest thing that happened to hockey was having baseball get its deal done without a work stoppage. I don’t think our game can afford a work stoppage.

It doesn’t matter what we do to improve the game on the ice if the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association can’t come up with a new collective bargaining agreement in 2004. If they can’t do that, then any changes we make to the game itself will all be for naught.

To show that I’m not just a player’s guy, I think salaries have risen to the point where we, the players, should be satisfied. I think the potential exists for NHL players to earn amazing salaries. You have guys who score 10 goals a season earning $2.5 million.

We need to think about the good of the game.

The Hockey News Archive is a vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 articles exclusively for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit the archives at THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com