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NHL officials approved a radical realignment plan Monday that will give the league four conferences instead of six divisions and guarantee home-and-home series among all teams.

The Board of Governors authorized commissioner Gary Bettman to implement the proposal pending input with the NHL Players' Association. It could be put in place as early as next season.

Conference "A"
Anaheim
Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

Conference "B"
Chicago
Columbus
Dallas
Detroit
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg

Conference "C"
Boston
Buffalo
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Conference "D"
Carolina
New Jersey
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/73212 ... nment-plan 8,8,7,7.

Anticipating Phoenix moving to QCity, it puts Leafs eventually in an 8-team conference.

I don't mind the decision to go to 4 divisions. It helps travel for western teams and also gets teams to play every other team in the NHL at least twice. What I don't like is the elimination of the East and West conferences. I don't want to see the first 2 rounds of the playoffs every year be within the division. I also don't like guaranteeing each division 4 playoff teams (what if one division has 6 teams that are better than the 3rd best team in another division for example). What they should have done is keep east and west, but change it to 2 divisions per conference and still have top 8 teams make playoffs. Still have 1 v 8, etc.... with division winners getting top 2 seeds. Completely changing the playoff format is what bothers me most.

_venom_ wrote:I don't mind the decision to go to 4 divisions. It helps travel for western teams and also gets teams to play every other team in the NHL at least twice. What I don't like is the elimination of the East and West conferences. I don't want to see the first 2 rounds of the playoffs every year be within the division. I also don't like guaranteeing each division 4 playoff teams (what if one division has 6 teams that are better than the 3rd best team in another division for example). What they should have done is keep east and west, but change it to 2 divisions per conference and still have top 8 teams make playoffs. Still have 1 v 8, etc.... with division winners getting top 2 seeds. Completely changing the playoff format is what bothers me most.

Apparently only way this was going down was if Detroit and Dallas got promises they would not have to play so many west coast games, thus eliminating the west-east split, and going to being more time zone friendly. No teams have to play most of their games against teams more than one time zone different. Detroit had to play 3 time zones different frequently and that is now gone.

I like it, it will really build some playoff rivalries like we used to see in the Norris division days, seeing how you will always face the same teams in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Only I hate is I wish we could switch Columbus and Toronto and put us in the same division as Detroit and Chicago again, but I also understand they want to keep us with Ottawa and Montreal. It also would have given the Jets another Canadian team in their conference.

They should have just switched Detroit with Winnipeg and switch Detroit with Boston

Interesting idea. Will have to see how it plays out in practice. I feel like it will make the league a lot more regional, for better or worse, with 6 games a year against every team in your conference, and the first two playoff rounds against teams in your conference. Could set up some cool Stanley Cup matchups though.

Conference A looks pretty strong (although strangely enough, the top 4 teams in the West today would all be in B).

Having Tampa and Florida in our division is kinda weird, but they probably agreed because of the attendance bump they will see with Toronto, Montreal, and Boston coming to town 3 times each.

We really lucked out IMO. There's two elite teams (Buffalo and Boston), one strong but beatable team (Tampa), then you have a mediocre team (Florida) and the rest are also very average. I don't see Montreal has any immediate thread anytime soon, nor will Ottawa. It could be a lot worse.

I understand why they did it, but the two New York franchises and the two from Florida should be swapped straight up.

Makes way more sense on paper in my opinion, just not in the wallets of NHL owners.

I've been meaning to read up on this alignment because I wondered who could end up playing in the finals. If the two best teams are in C and D, then do they play in the finals? Anyway, seems that's the big question no one knows yet??

Bettman said he will consult with general managers in the spring before deciding whether to reseed the playoffs in the third round or to have pre-determined matchups.

"It's going to be different," Phoenix captain Shane Doan said after the Coyotes won 4-3 in a shootout at Chicago. "Once you win your conference, you cross over to play somebody. I don't know who. Does it rotate? Does Conference A play Conference D, then B and C?"

I wonder if the east teams (C and D) would generally beat the west teams because of less travel.

NHLPA just rejected the re-alignment plan. Donald Fehr showing who's boss.

J-Roc wrote:NHLPA just rejected the re-alignment plan. Donald Fehr showing who's boss.

Ya. Peeing in owners' and fans' cornflakes. Leverage?

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/74340 ... ffs-format

Fehr just letting the NHL and even the NHLPA know that decisions don't get made without them. When you think about out it, there was so much hoopla about the announcement and it was almost like fine print the mention that the NHLPA would have to agree.

They are making this a CBA issue, so that by signing off on this, the Owner's have to give them something in return. Smart move by Fehr, he at least looks to be approaching the next CBA negotiations prepared, unlike Hunter.