Without question, the Gold Plan has been received with positive reviews, and deemed successful by many metrics for the PWHL. We may have, however, seen some of the downsides to the plan, which remain far outweighed by the benefits, for the first time.
The Gold Plan is being discussed as the gold standard for deciding the first overall pick in professional sport. The plan was devised to deter teams from tanking, and to keep games meaningful for teams after they are mathematically eliminated from the playoff race.
Under the plan, PWHL teams begin collecting "draft order points" after being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, and the team that earns the most points picks first overall in the PWHL Draft. This season it resulted in the Vancouver Goldeneyes usurping both the Seattle Torrent and New York Sirens who finished below them in the standings to grab the top pick, and the opportunity to select generational player Caroline Harvey.
While the Gold Plan works in many ways...for the first time as the system was expanded to involve an actual race, and as it was tested in real time with multiple teams for the first time in any league, some of the minor downsides to the system also showed.
The pros certainly outweigh the cons, but like any system, it's imperfect.
Does It Really Matter If The Rules Keep Changing?
Like many items in the PWHL, it's impossible to tell what actually works, because the rules the league has are bent, broken, and changed without any announcement, and seemingly on a situation-by-situation basis.
Having the Gold Plan is fine, but if the plan exists, the PWHL needs to adhere to it, whether there's expansion or not. Last year there was no consensus among teams or league staff on what would happen to draft positioning beyond first overall, when the Gold Plan is actually designed to decide the draft order for all non-playoff teams. Many believed Vancouver and Seattle would pick second and third overall. Ultimately they picked seventh and eighth. A year later we're back at the same spot. No one, including the league, knows where expansion teams will select in the draft.
As the league's own explanation states, "If new teams are added through expansion, the final draft order of selection for all picks following the first overall selection will be confirmed at a later date."
In professional sport, teams spend years planning for each draft class, and for how it will impact their free agency and roster building. While expansion is needed, and will understandably alter plans, the Gold Plan's relevance and success is vastly diminished by the league's approach to implementing their own ever-changing rules.
Even if they adhere to their rules, the noncommittal approach has coaches, GMs, incoming players, and fans questioning, and at times, upset.
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.
When the Gold Plan kicks in, one team may have 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 at different points in their own years based on the large gaps between games PWHL teams often experience in their schedules.
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. Tanking is 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.
A prime example came already this year as the Minnesota Frost choose to start Marlene Boissonnault in the final game of their season against the Vancouver Goldeneyes. Ultimately, Vancouver's win in the e game 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, or even their starter for a final tune up 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 of the standings, 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 mattered 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 final game of the season which was a 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.