With the 2015-16 NHL season beginning this week and the likelihood of NHL expansion on the near horizon, the issue of realignment has reared its ugly head again. Only two years after the NHL realigned to a four-division format, there may be a need for another shift in the league format.
NHL Expansion and Realignment
With Quebec City and Las Vegas the front runners for the new expansion franchises, the league will once again be left with a geographic imbalance, having 17 teams in the Eastern Time Zone and only 15 combined in the central, mountain and pacific time zones. This imbalance will cause one (or more) of the Eastern Time Zone teams to be located in a division that is considered part of the Western Conference, something the league has been trying to avoid to in an effort to appease Detroit and Columbus, who formerly played in the Western Conference and were required to travel to the West Coast for Conference games that began after 10pm Eastern on a regular basis. Both Detroit and Columbus were rewarded for their patience with a realignment to the new Eastern Conference, however if Quebec City is given a franchise, one of Detroit or Columbus will need to shift back to the Western Conference, which means more late night road games.
In an effort to minimize these late night road games, I began to brainstorm alternatives to the current four-division alignment, and think the following solution has some merit. With 32 teams, the league can adjust to a new eight division format, similar to that of the NFL; with two divisions pairing up in a new eight-team “conference.”
ADAMS CONFERENCE
Northeast Division – Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Toronto
Valley Division – Buffalo, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
PATRICK CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division – Boston, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers
Southeast Division – Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay, Washington
NORRIS CONFERENCE
Central Division – Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis
Midwest Division – Arizona*, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota
SMYTHE CONFERENCE
Northwest Division – Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg*
Pacific Division – Anaheim, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Jose*
*There is an alternate alignment available to this plan, moving Winnipeg to the Midwest, Arizona to the Pacific, and San Jose to the Northwest may actually make a little more sense geographically since Winnipeg is in the Central Time Zone. However, the lure of having all the Canadian teams in two divisions seems like a good plan, and would excite the Canadian fans and TV networks with the possibility of additional playoff teams from Canada.
There are a lot of positives to this plan, although Detroit has to move back to a “Western” division, they will have the majority of their games focused in the Midwest, and the other games they will have to play out West are not in excess of what any other East Coast team will have to travel, making one trip to play each opponent on the road. Detroit does get the added bonus of being re-associated with the Chicago Blackhawks, a traditional & geographic rival. When compared to the majority of teams, Detroit will have two more games that occur two time zones away (one each at Colorado and at Arizona), but this is a much more favorable schedule than Detroit had been experiencing in the years leading up to the current alignment.
Each team would still play 82 games, with six games against each of their three division opponents (18 games), four games against their four non-division conference opponents (16 games) and two games against the other 24 teams (48 games). This creates a schedule that allows for even home-and-home schedules, while concentrating 34 games inside of each conference. The even home-and-home schedules are exciting, because it would allow for tiebreaking procedures to be employed on a fairer basis than the current five game season series, where one team has an additional home game in the head-to-head.
Playoffs would be played inter-conference with four out of eight teams qualifying in each conference; the two division winners would receive the home ice advantage in the first round, while playing against one of the two wild card qualifiers from the conference. The winners would compete in the second round, with the second round winner being the Conference Champion entering the league semifinals. The Adams winner would face the Patrick winner in a defacto Eastern semifinal; while the Norris winner would face the Smythe winner in the Western semifinal. The winners of the East and West would then face off in the Stanley Cup. The names have changed, but in essence the format is nearly identical to the current league setup and would not require a wide shift in dynamics to the playoffs.
It is not perfect, few division alignments are, but I think this plan may alleviate a lot of the problems that are prevalent with the situation that occurs having 17 teams in the Eastern Time Zone. I welcome any comments or suggestions for improvements to the plan.
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