Should NHL shorten preseason? Andre Tourigny doesn’t think so

This might be the most injury-riddled preseason in NHL history.

The list of sidelined stars already included Drew Doughty, William Nylander, Patrik Laine and David Reinbacher, but the list more than doubled Tuesday. Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Thomas Chabot, Artemi Panarin and Macklin Celebrini all left their respective games with injuries in the span of just a few hours.

Shortening the preseason has been a popular idea during the last week or so. Many argue that star players who are just trying to shed their summer rust should not be subjected to the intensity of fringe players who are doing everything they can to crack their teams’ rosters — especially in games that have no impact on the standings.

Preseason games also generate less money than regular-season games, as tickets are generally cheaper and most teams don’t sell them out. Fans tend to care less about them because they rarely indicate the success of the team in the regular season and the playoffs.

NHL insider Pierre LeBrun reported that the idea arose in the Board of Governors’ meeting Tuesday. He says that if that were to happen, they would likely add two games to the regular-season schedule.

But as good an idea as it seems to managers, media and fans, it would take a lot of arm twisting to get the coaches on board.

“Injury is part of the sport,” said Utah Hockey Club coach Andre Tourigny on Wednesday morning. “Knock on wood, you don’t want that to happen to your players, but at the same time, it’s just an accident.”

Tourigny said there are three reasons for preseason games:

• For NHL regulars to shed their rust.
• To give young players a taste of NHL action and progress their development.
• To give opportunities to guys who are “knocking at the door to show what they can do.”

If there are only four games, as opposed to the six to eight that the NHL currently has, he says they would lose that whole third category of players.

“If we decide to change the formula, we have to understand the impact,” he said. “That means a lot of guys you asked about earlier in the camp, you will not see them.”

He went on to note that separating the NHL players from the guys who are not expected to make the team means they would essentially have an NHL camp and an AHL camp.

“You want to see Tij Iginla playing against NHL players,” he said. “You want to see him one-on-one with Mario Ferraro. You want to see him in those kinds of situations.”

“I’m OK either way, but we need to know: What’s the goal?”