Proposed NHL Realignment

every year we enter the season with a 58% chance of making the playoffs….WOOT!

I don’t see how the home and home is going to work 30 teams means that 29*2 = 58 of 82 games are scheduled right off the bat. 24 games left? 6 div opponents * 4 more games works for the 7 team conferences but the 8 team ones?

The Penguins’ site has all the information you need on the realignment, such as schedule, playoff format, etc. The site also confirms that it the proposal has been approved by the board of governors.

As for my own thoughts on the matter:

Great job by Bettman and company as well as the board of governors!

As far as I can see this solves all the major issues:

1) Detroit and Columbus will play most of their games against teams in their own or adjacent timezones – most (all?) of the teams in their division (called conference now) are in their own timezone or in an adjacent one. They will play an increased amount of games against east coast teams and a reduced amount of games against west coast teams (2 games against teams outside of their conference). Colorado and Dallas will also have a more friendly schedule timezone-wise now that they are in their desired conference.

2) Winnipeg is no longer in a conference with teams on the Atlantic Coast.

3) Conferences have been narrowed down to as small a spread in timezone and geography as is possible in a league spanning 4 timezones, 2 countries and most of a continent.

4) And, finally, the most important one in my mind, all the major rivalries have been preserved. On top of that a few new great potential conference rivalries have been introduced, such as Washington vs Pittsburgh.

Interesting things to note or ponder:

As mentioned above by lampshade, the inequality of conferences begs the question, are we looking at a future NHL expansion, or even a contraction?

The eastern Canadian teams and the two Florida teams in the same conference gives rise to long flights, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem. By the very nature of all of them being in the same conference, I imagine the teams will see a large number of “road trips” going to and from Florida and Canada, much as we often already do see. Traveling that far is much less of an issue when you can play 2 or 3 teams in the area over a few days before going home.

How will conference final winners be matched up against each other? Lottery? The two western-most and the two eastern-most conference final winners playing against each other?

Because 8 teams in the west won’t make the playoffs and 6 in the east won’t.

The west will get 8 of the top 14 draft choices and the east will get 6.
Multiply that over 10 years and you get, um um um. Do your own math!! hahaha.

Food for thought though.

OK. The Penguins were in the only division where every team has a Stanley Cup banner hanging from the rafters.

Now, they are in a conference where every team except Washington has won the Cup. Hehe. The teasing I see in the future.