Is that what the teams play? An 84 game regular season?

If that's the case, and we want a "reality based" game, then I would have a roster with the same number of players that an NHL team has; What is it, 20?

Then, I would make the starting lineup every day consist of 3 centers, 3 left wings, 3 right wings, 6 defensemen, and one goalie, just like teams do in real life.

Everyone could cover whatever positions they wanted to on the bench.

The "maximum number of games at each position" limits would be 252 for the center and wings, 504 for the defensemen, and 84 for the goalie.

Just like real life; if a team dresses 6 defenseman for every game, at the end of the season the total number of games playd by their defenseman will be 504, right?

So it wouldn't matter which teams had off days on which of the 180 days of the season during which each team plays 84 games with 100 days off.

Everyone is allowed the same number of games.