Canes owner thinking outside the box
When the NHL’s board of governors held meetings last week at a posh seaside resort in southern Georgia, Tom Dundon had the look of a man apart.
In a ballroom filled almost exclusively with men in dark suits, Dundon, who’ll celebrate his one-year anniversary as owner of the Carolina Hurricanes next month, wore a dark track suit — a black Hurricanes pullover paired with Lululemon sweatpants. While such casualwear has long been a staple of the U.S. billionaire class, where the hoodie-and-sneakers wearing CEO is a staple, it hasn’t yet become standard among NHL power brokers. Even so, in an interview this week Dundon said traditional suit-and-tie business attire has always made him feel “uncomfortable and restricted.”
So while Dundon said he regrets any attention that came his way for standing out from his NHL peers — “I don’t want to be the story. I’m just trying to be comfortable” — he’s also a progressive thinker whose short time in the sport has seen him raise the prospect of more than a few changes that go far beyond meeting-room dress codes.
“I don’t think hockey is that much more rooted in tradition or stuck in the past than most things,” said Dundon, whose Hurricanes play host to the Maple Leafs in Raleigh on Tuesday night. “I actually find it to be pretty open-minded and progressive, the people I’ve met. But that doesn’t mean there’s not some things ... ”
For one, Dundon would clearly like to see the annual tradition of the Hurricanes missing the playoffs — they haven’t made it since 2009 — come to a prompt end.
“The losing just makes me insane, makes me sad,” said Dundon, whose team was five points out of the final Eastern wild-card spot heading into Monday night’s slate of games.
In a not-unrelated matter, Dundon is also of the belief that the league’s current playoff format, wherein 16 of 31 teams earn a berth to the postseason, ought to be expanded, and not by a little bit. His playoff-expansion argument, as much as it could be seen as self-serving, makes some sense. Dundon, 46, is from a generation first exposed to the NHL when 16 of 21 teams made the post-season in the 1980s. Since then the NHL has added 10 franchises — soon to be 11 with the addition of Seattle in 2021 — without increasing its playoff field.
“It’s the best part of the sea- son,” Dundon said of the Stanley Cup tournament.
Dundon said one of the scenarios he’s heard discussed would see 20 teams make the playoffs, 10 from each conference. In that configuration, Dundon tossed out the idea that the bottom four teams could engage in either a one-off play-in game or a best-of-three series to enter the fray with the top six seeds. But the details of the format aren’t as important as what Dundon figures would be its effects — increases in TV ratings and hockey-related revenue that would come with including more teams in the playoff mix.
The NHL’s competitive balance and hockey’s random nature is such that a No. 10 seed would have a reasonable chance of knocking off a No. 1 seed. This isn’t the NBA, where the haves almost invariably crush the have-nots.
In fact, if Dundon had his way, he said he’d include as many as 24 teams in the post-season while reducing the regular season from 82 to 78 games. While critics have argued expanding the playoffs would make the regular season less relevant, Dundon makes a case for the opposite.
“I just think it makes the regular season much more interesting,” Dundon said. “You don’t get the last two months where some teams aren’t trying anymore and you get a lot of bad games. If everyone’s in it all year fighting for seeds and fighting for playoffs, I think it’s just a better product.”
Dundon, for his part, acknowledges a considerable stumbling block to making such a change. Commissioner Gary Bettman isn’t an advocate of playoff expansion. Which is not to say Bettman’s mind can’t change. It wasn’t long ago that Bettman was among the prosports commissioners who saw gambling as a scourge. In October the NHL signed a sportsbetting partnership with MGM Resorts. Which is perhaps why Dundon offered up a prediction of sorts.
“I think something around (playoff expansion) ultimately gets done, because there’s no one that loses,” Dundon said. “I will keep speaking to people about it, and we’ll keep trying. I think this is something that’s got a real chance.”
If change is in the air, Dundon is among those who’d also like to see the league a) hold firm to its commitment to rid “nonhockey plays” from the sport and b) do more to promote star players. As a case in point, Dundon brought up the matter of a Hurricanes home game against the Oilers last season. Although reigning league MVP Connor McDavid was in the building, there was insufficient buzz to accompany his presence.
“I was surprised. It wouldn’t be like that in other leagues; the big stars carry a lot more weight. But in the U.S., (NHL) stars are pretty anonymous,” Dundon said. “It was probably the worst attendance of the year. When your biggest star doesn’t carry every market, I think we’ve all got to look at that and say, ‘What can we do about that?’ And I think that’s something the NHL is working on. This mentality of team-first is a great mentality. But at the same time, we’re in the entertainment business.”
It’s the entertainment business, sure, but also a traditionally conservative one. So small changes draw big attention. If Dundon raised eyebrows bringing his dress-down ethos to the board of governors meeting last week, Columbus coach John Tortorella also turned heads when he showed up on the Blue Jackets bench wearing a team-branded hoodie.
“That was awesome,” Dundon said of Tortorella’s choice of clothing.
Dundon said he’s had conversations with Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour about loosening his team’s dress code.
“I’ve pushed for, ‘Let the players be comfortable (in) what they wear to the arena and on the plane,’ ” Dundon said.
But Dundon, who lives in Dallas, said it’s always worth remembering a piece of advice he received from his old friend Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA Mavericks: Never tell your coach what to do. Which isn’t to say a proprietor can’t offer up a suggestion or two in the name of progress.
“I’ve said to (Brind’Amour), ‘You don’t have to wear a tie every night if you don’t want to.’ But he’s not going for it,” Dundon said. “He believes in looking professional. He believes that that matters. So I’m not trying to talk him out of it. It doesn’t matter to me. But it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t matter to somebody else.”