Just when you thought pro hockey had mastered the art of losing on purpose—more commonly known as tanking—along comes the PWHL with a concept so radical, it might actually make sense. It’s called the “Gold Plan,” and no, it’s not a new Netflix documentary about Donald Trump’s interior decorating style, it’s a system designed to force teams to play-to-win… even after they’re eliminated. Yes, we’ll pause here for the traditional hockey reaction: Wait… what?
Under this plan, once a team is officially out of the playoffs, their wins suddenly become more valuable—not less. In fact, the more points they rack up after elimination, the better their draft position. The team that collects the most of these “post-elimination points” gets the first overall pick. Which means, for the first time in hockey history, fans might actually cheer a meaningless March victory instead of angrily Googling “top prospects 2026” halfway through the second period.
Think about how upside-down this is: Traditionally, when a team is eliminated, the organizational message becomes: “Let’s evaluate the young players,” which is hockey code for “accidentally forget how to be competitive.” Suddenly, with the Gold Plan, that same team is battling to the finish line like it’s Game 7 of the finals. No more “strategic rest.” No more mysterious “upper-body injuries” for anyone with a pulse.
The beauty of the system is that it flips tanking on its head without needing lotteries, ping-pong balls, or conspiracy theories about frozen envelopes. The worse you are early, the earlier you’re eliminated… which actually gives you more time to earn draft points by winning games. So instead of racing to the bottom, teams are now racing to avoid being the worst and racing to be the best of the worst—after being the worst. Got that? Clear as mud, yes?
From CBC.ca:
“With this draft order, there are no more easy games,” Gold Plan creator Adam Gold told CBC Sports. “Everyone’s trying to win. For these teams, there really is no tomorrow. They are playing for the opportunity to win in future seasons. To win with [top prospects] Caroline Harvey or to win with Laila Edwards or with Abbey Murphy, they have to demonstrate that they can win without them.”
Of course, this won’t stop die-hard tank enthusiasts from trying to find loopholes. Hockey’s front office people love systems. They love gaming systems even more. Perhaps the master of manipulation—the NHL’s Vegas Golden Cheaters— could offer advice to any sinister PWHL member looking for a shady advantage. Will this completely eliminate tanking? Probably not. But the PWHL deserves credit for at least attempting to solve a problem most leagues just politely ignore while pretending the draft lottery is a cure-all. Because let’s be honest—if your system still rewards losing, teams will lose.
This makes total sense. Which explains why Gary Bettman and the NHL will dismiss it the same way they dismiss the rule book every playoff season.
