Realignment for 2013-2014 Season

[Steve_v3 289]

Reports: NHL to realign for 2012-13
I'm interested to see where teams would end up & how the schedule would shake out.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

First I've heard about 4 divisions, but complete realignment has been talked about for a while.

The league said they couldn't realign in time for this season, though one can't help but wonder if they're putting it off until they find out where the Coyotes will be moving to...

[wrangler 157]

They're talking about doing it by time zone. I'd hate to see the Blackhawks in a division without another original six team.

[Gefiltefish 9]

Figured this would happen.

I thought the easy fix would be to move Nashville to the Southeast with Tampa, Florda, etc and then move Winnipeg in with St Louis, Chicago, etc.

4 divisions and the complete re-alignment sounds interesting though. I like the idea of by time-zone. Makes it brutal for teams in the west to have teams in their division in three different time zones.

I am all for the 4 Division's and (hopefully) more balanced play

[chippa13 1844]

I guess the question becomes, how do you select and seed playoff teams? I'm thinking for each conference that the top two teams in each division are automatically in and the bottom 4 are decided by overally standings in the conference.

[Chadd 916]

Figured this would happen.

I thought the easy fix would be to move Nashville to the Southeast with Tampa, Florda, etc and then move Winnipeg in with St Louis, Chicago, etc.

4 divisions and the complete re-alignment sounds interesting though. I like the idea of by time-zone. Makes it brutal for teams in the west to have teams in their division in three different time zones.

I am all for the 4 Division's and (hopefully) more balanced play

Personally, I think it's easier to realign within the current format. I agree with you about moving Nashville to the southeast being the "easy fix" and suggested that a while ago.

I don't see how they could pull off a four division realignment without breaking up a major rivalry.

Here's my suggestion if there is no more movement:

Eastern conference - North

Montreal

Toronto

Ottawa

Boston

Buffalo

Detroit

*Islanders*

Eastern Conference - South

Rangers

New Jersey

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Carolina

Tampa

Florida

Washington

Western Conference - Central

Chicago

Winnipeg

Minnesota

St Louis

Dallas

Nashville

Columbus

Western Conference - Pacific

Edmonton

Calgary

Vancouver

Colorado

Los Angeles

Anaheim

San Jose

Phoenix

If they go to four divisions, I want an "Original 6 plus Ottawa" division.

[dsjunior1388 81]

It'll never happen, but to even out the travel disparity between Eastern and Western conference teams, why not move to a North and South conference? Grantes, it doesn't make much sense having teams in Philly and New York as "southern" but it makes the same amount of sense to have four western conference teams that are geographically east of the Mississippi. It would also be relatively simple to split those conferences into two divisions.

[Jason Harris 31]

While it might even out the disparity among the teams, I think North/South would lead to more travel overall, particularly going over time zones.

Really, the problem is one of geography. I don't know about the Western part of Canada, but so much of the West in the U.S. isn't the most inhabitable or desirable, causing teams from those cities to have to travel so much more. It's not like the Northeast, where twelve teams are probably within a 90 minute flight from each other. For instance, the two closest cities to Denver are Phoenix and Dallas at just over an 1:45 flight; Vancouver seems to have similar distances to Calgary and Edmonton, then at least two hours to the next closest city.

[RadioGaGa 162]

How are the playoff seeds decided? Top 4 in each Div. Top 8 overall in the Conf. ?

Are they planning a cross over if #5 in Div that has 8 has more points than #4 in the Div with 7.

The cross over can be a pain in the ass, but I know from having seen it in the AHL, it helps keep it interesting late in the year...you may be safely in 4th in your div...but still need to overtake 5 from the other Div to make it. And it can help avoid a Seattle Seahawks situation, where a bad record makes it in.

[raganblink 82]

Nashville to SE

Winnipeg to NW

Minnesota to Central?

(or even more obscure, Minnesota stays in NW, colorado to Pacific, Dallas to central?)

6 divisions keeps scheduling easy until (or if) they hit 32 teams. 7 and an 8 team divisions complicate scheduling alot. And it creates an unbalanced schedule, and someone will complain due to that if they miss the playoffs barely... Personally I'd like to see 6 intra-division games (24 total), 3 intra-conference games (30 total, 2&1 against one division, 1&2 against other division) 2 inter-conference games (30 total).

That's 84 games, and you get to play everyone at home, which is huge for a lot of people. Crosby every year in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver. Ovi every year in the west. Luongo every year in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa. If you can't tell, I'd really love to see 29 different teams on everyone's home and away schedule :)

[RadioGaGa 162]

I don't think this had been posted yet...which surprises me.

New Division Names: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=678456&navid=DL|NHL|home

[Chadd 916]

The Eastern conference names make no sense at all. I guess that's what you should expect when you have illogical divisions, no names really fit. You could maybe get away with calling the "Metropolitan" division, the "mid-atlantic". Columbus and Carolina would be the only ones that would be a stretch. As for the abomination division, there is just no way to tie them together with a name.

[Meals 2]

So the Metro Division??? What are they doing to my Rangers!!!! They have to rename this!