NHL Re-alignment

[SharoneWright]

WEST CONFERENCE

Pacific Division (Smyth )
Anaheim
Calgary
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

Mid-West Division (Norris )
Chicago
Colorado
Dallas
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg

EAST CONFERENCE

Central Division (Adams )
Boston
Buffalo
Detroit
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Atlantic Division (Patrick )
Carolina
Columbus
New Jersey
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

1) Top 3 from each division make playoffs.
2) Next 2 best conference records round out the final spots as WildCards.
3) Playoffs are DIVISIONAL (The division winner with the better record gets the lowest-seed WC)

IE. 5 teams from 1 division can make it in (both WC's) along with 3 teams from the other division. (If that happens, 1 of the WC's must obviously move over to play in the other divisional playoff...)

4) That makes 2 8-teams divisions in the East and 2 7-teams divisions in the West... Future expansion!?

Thoughts?

All that needs to happen is NHLPA approval, but apparently they have already been contributing to the process...

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/89914 ... ource-says

[whysoserious]

Very happy to see Detroit back in the East and in the same division with Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Boston.

[_venom_]

I understand the re-alignment for travelling purposes (try to keep teams in same time zone) but the 16 East teams and 14 West teams bothers me. That means that only 50% of eastern teams make the playoffs and almost 60% of West teams make it. It really shouldn't be like that.

What I'd like to see:

-Move Phoenix to Seattle
-Fold Florida and either NJ or NYI (don't need 3 teams in that area especially with Islanders moving to Brooklyn)

Then you have 4 divisions with 7 teams each. Folding two teams also makes the league stronger and eliminates some of the useless plugs you have playing on team's fourth lines.

Of course this would never happen because the league would want to expand rather than fold teams.

Also it would make a lot more sense for Columbus and Carolina to be in the Central with Tampa and Florida in the Atlantic.

[LittleOzzy]

Canadian teams get really screwed by being lumped together. Less teams from Canada in the playoffs helps the NHL though in the States.

[whysoserious]

Canadian teams get really screwed by being lumped together. Less teams from Canada in the playoffs helps the NHL though in the States.

I don't know that it's about being screwed per se. Geographically and rivalry perspective, it makes sense to have them together. What would have been worse that some people were suggesting years ago was an All-Canadian division.

This set up is actually pretty good for the most part other than the stupid Florida/TB thing. It's a gimmick to prop up those franchises by getting Toronto and the like in there more often. They should swap TB/FLA for Columbus and Pittsburgh but Philly wants to keep Pittsburgh in their division for that rivalry.

I think playing in the divisions will be good and at least every team, plays every time home and away now every year. Plus, I'm glad Detroit is finally back with the Leafs. Just like MTL/Bos are old rivals, Tor/Det can re-establish their rivalry hopefully.