With the impending move of the Atlanta Thrasher to Winnipeg, it seems like everyone in the hockey blogosphere is putting their two cents in when it comes to divisional realignment. Had Phoenix moved to Winnipeg this would have been easy, move them to the Northeast, and Colorado to the Pacific, no problemo.
But with an Eastern Team moving West, we have some interesting scenarios. Who moves to the Eastern Conference. Detroit was reportedly promised a move East if it came up, Columbus is the most Eastern team in the Western Conference, and Nashville would be the most logical fit into the Southeast Division. Some rumours have been going around that the league will oddly have Winnipeg play in the Southeast for a year. While this seems stupid, it seems like they want to do a whole new realignment and want to explore it fully in time for the 2012-13 season.
After the lockout, the NHL had an idea of going to back to 4 divisions, similar to what they had up to 1998 when they switched to their six division model. Also, I have read some rumours of the NHL making a Canadian Division, or going for a radical 3 Conference alignment.
I personally am not a huge fan of the 6 divisions that they have now. It gives a huge advantage to anyone playing in a weak division (e.g. the Capitals until this year, or the Canucks now), it puts a huge advantage on the Atlantic Division since they are all in Tri-State Area and don’t have to travel very far, and it makes both the Southeast and the Pacific division pretty lame. Basically they stacked up the traditional rivalries like the Canadian cities and the New York connection, and divided the sunbelt in half and went from there.
So with that in mind and the impending Westward move of the Thrashers, I came up withfive different scenarios. In this post, I’ll examine the first one which is sort of a “Ctrl+Z” of the divisional alignment of the past 13 years.
Scenario #1: Back to the Pre-98 Days
This scenario goes back to the four divisions in a very similar way to what was used for the 80s and 90s. Two conferences, and two divisions per Conference.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Pacific Division
Anaheim Ducks
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
Los Angeles Kings
Phoenix Coyotes
San Jose Sharks
Winnipeg Whatever the Heck they Are
Vancouver Canucks
This keeps the California Teams and Phoenix together, as well as the four Western Canadian ones. It also gives Phoenix and Winnipeg an entertaining (and emotional) rivalry.
Central Division
Chicago Blackhawks
Dallas Stars
Detroit Red Wings
Colorado Avalanche
Nashville Predators
Minnesota Wild
St. Louis Blues
This keeps Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, and St. Louis together, and reunites Dallas with them. Minnesota and Dallas get put together like Winnipeg-Phoenix, and Minnesota gets reunited with all of their old Norris Division rivals as well. The very isolated Colorado is put with one of their closest cities (St. Louis) and two of their rivals from the 90s in Dallas and Detroit.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Northeast Division
Boston Bruins
Buffalo Sabres
Columbus Blue Jackets
Montreal Canadiens
Pittsburgh Penguins
Ottawa Senators
Toronto Maple Leafs
This puts Columbus, a franchise that is reportedly bleeding money, in with some very traditional hockey towns, as well as their closest geographical rival in Pittsburgh. Most importantly it keeps the current Northeast Division all together, which includes five teams with some pretty strong rivalries. Also it moves the Penguins back to where they played for 5 years in between realignments (and won the division 3 times).
Atlantic Division
Carolina Hurricanes
Florida Panthers
New Jersey Devils
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
Philadelphia Flyers
Tampa Bay Lightning
Washington Capitals
This keeps all of the teams with the word New in them, with many of the teams that actually where new in the 90s. It keeps Philadelphia in with the New York Metropolitan teams, and reunites them with their Patrick Division Rivals in Washington. Washington would see this as bittersweet, as they have benefited in the standings from beating up Florida and Carolina, but they certainly haven’t benefited at the gates from having those teams come to town. It would get Ovechkin and Stamkos to play at Madison Square Garden more, which would offset Crosby moving divisions.
Suggested Schedule:
Pacific and Atlantic Division Teams: 6 games against each division rival (42) + 2 games against other 7 in conference (14) + 1 game against opposing Conferences (15) + 11 more “at large”
Central and Northeast Division Teams: 6 games against each division rival (36) + 2 games against other 8 in conference (16) + 2 games against teams in the other 7 division teams (Central-Northeast) (14) + 1 vs. other Coastal Division (8) + + 8 more at large
Playoffs: The options are pretty much limitless. They can easily keep the Conference playoffs that we have now, or go back to pre-94 divisional playoffs, or switch to a 1-16 madness playoffs.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Keeps most traditional rivals together, allows the NHL to return to the divisional playoffs that they had up to ‘93 if they are worried about travel costs; puts the Southern Teams with large drawing teams (e.g. Philly and the Rangers with the Southeast teams)
Cons: Feels like a step backwards and has the same feel as the last alignment; still a huge travel schedule for the Western Teams; the league’s most marketable star will mostly be playing in buildings that already sell-out
Winning Teams: Columbus for getting East and in the same division as the regional rival Pittsburgh; Chicago for not losing Detroit in their division; Dallas for not having to travel 2, 700 km to San Jose 3 times a year; Washington, Philadelphia, and Tamp Bay for getting to beat up on the conference cellar-dwellers; Detroit may not get to move East, but they do get an additional number of games against the Northeast, including Toronto, Montreal, and Pittsburgh, which will cut down travel expenses and increase revenues.
Losing Teams: The Soutwest teams. Sadly, three visits a year from Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary won’t help attendance; Detroit for now being the only team in the Western Conference but the Eastern Time-zone; Winnipeg and Vancouver for being 2,300km away but division rivals; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for losing their key-state rivalry (although the “at large” games could easily be used to make up for this)
Moving Forward:
Room for Expansion: Should the NHL Decide to expand, there is plenty of room. A team in Quebec City or Hamilton would logically go in the Northeast Division, bringing it’s total to eight teams. Similarly for a team in Kansas City, which would go in the Central (joining cross-state St. Louis). If they put a team in Seattle or Las Vegas, they would have to move a team from the Pacific to the Central, geographically it should be Winnipeg, even if it upsets Canadians who want to preserve the four Canadian team division out West. The real complication would be if a team out West (say Phoenix) moved East (say to Hamilton or Quebec), then Columbus would have to switch to the Central, or maybe we could have a 16 team East and a 14 team West, which may not be so bad actually.
Verdict: This is the most likely of my five scenarios to happen, it is safe, easy, and flexible. It also gives the NHL plenty of playoff options. They can stick with the eight team Conference playoffs, go back to the divisional playoffs, or switch to the wacky 1-16 option.
In a few days I’ll post a slightly more radical option, involving an All-Canadian Division, and a Sunbelt Division as well.
Until next time,
G
Tags: Hockey, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Realignment Roulette
Here is, in my opinion, the best setup and the one that will eventually be implemented:
Eastern Conference:
Atlantic Div: NYI, NYR, NJ, Phi, Was, Car, Fla, TB
Northeast Div: Bos, Mon, Ott, Buf, Tor, Det, Colb, Pit
Western Conference:
Central Div: Nas, Chi, StL, Min, Win, Dal, Colr
Pacific Div: Edm, Cal, Van, Pho, Ana, LA, SJ
The Atlantic is the current Atlantic, minus Pittsburgh, a team not really on the Atlantic, plus the 4 former Southeastern teams that are on or close to the coast. Similar to the Atlantic of 1993-1998.
The Northeast is just the current Northeast, plus Detroit and Columbus from the West, and Pittsburgh, which was a Northeast team from 1993-1998. Thus Toronto would be with its 3 main rivals (Ott, Buf, Det), and Columbus and Pittsburgh could start a new rivalry. Recall there would be plenty of interdivision games, so Pittsburgh and Philly would still play probably 4 games a year.
The Central is the teams in the Central time zone, plus Colorado.
The Pacific is the teams in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, minus Colorado. If Phoenix moves to Kansas City, which has a new, unused arena and more of a demand for hockey than does Phoenix, then KC and Colorado would switch divisions, and the Pacific would look exactly as it did from 1995-1998.
To help the Western teams, the schedule in the West would be unbalanced, but the East, balanced.
Assure that each team plays each team in the other conference home-and-home every year, like it always was. Let the superstarts be seen everywhere.
Take the top 4 in each division, the first round would be within the division, but the second round would re-seed 1-4 by conference.
Bettman’s plan actually has Det/Colb/Pit switched with NYR/NYI/NJ. So the New York-area teams are grouped with Toronto, but Detroit wouldn’t be! A travesty! And Phi wouldn’t be grouped with the NY-area teams! Another travesty!
Do it as I have it above and everyone’s happy.