from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

Moving hockey from Winter to Summer in itself is not a novel idea. Longtime league executive Brian Burke, now president of the Penguins, was a strong proponent of Summer Olympic hockey as far back as the mid-1990s, as the plans were being shaped for the league’s best and brightest to be sent to Japan.

Today, as in the past, the switch is a no-brainer from the NHL standpoint. Rather than shutting down league operations for upward of three weeks during the season, the Lords of the Boards can stay out of the picture entirely and watch the Lords of the Rings stage a summer training camp for the NHL’s 100-plus best players.

Every offseason training camp should be so blessed to conclude with gold, silver, and bronze medals.

Also from the NHL standpoint, the Olympic tournament would provide a dynamic springboard of interest into that upcoming NHL season. Result: a motherlode of offseason marketing. The league gets some of that pop in the current Winter format, but the NHL viewing audience has been engaged for months by the time the Winter Games are held in February. The tournament becomes so many logs heaped into an already burning fire.

In fact, after an emotional Winter Olympics tournament, the return to play in the Original 32 can be hard for even the most ardent fan to watch. The NHL product suddenly looks like a JV by comparison.

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