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NHL realignment


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Don't know if there is a topic about this exclusively or not but if there is move this one if need be. Anyways, was thinking about the re-alignment that is coming in 2012-2013 with Winnipeg coming on. Who knows where Phoenix will end up after Hulsizer bailed. So, in my spare time, I made a map of all the teams as they are today. You can carve this turkey up in all kinds of ways. I personally am for just two conferences and ditching divisions since they are near meaningless now. The playoff seeding will be based strictly on point total with makes more sense. Also, would an unbalanced number of teams make sense in the two conferences?

 

post-262-091507300 1309365105_thumb.png

 

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I don't have time to make a post on the issue right now, but to the admins, I am all for keeping a thread solely dedicated to the idea of reallignment. I think it will be relevent at various points in the future and would be easier to refer back to than digging through the around the league thread.

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but to the admins, I am all for keeping a thread solely dedicated to the idea of reallignment.

 

yessss and I think it should be called...

"All About Realignment"

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Don't know if there is a topic about this exclusively or not but if there is move this one if need be. Anyways, was thinking about the re-alignment that is coming in 2012-2013 with Winnipeg coming on. Who knows where Phoenix will end up after Hulsizer bailed. So, in my spare time, I made a map of all the teams as they are today. You can carve this turkey up in all kinds of ways. I personally am for just two conferences and ditching divisions since they are near meaningless now. The playoff seeding will be based strictly on point total with makes more sense. Also, would an unbalanced number of teams make sense in the two conferences?

 

post-262-091507300 1309365105_thumb.png

 

Bigger Map

No topic exclusively devoted to this, but this is now at minimum the 5th thread where it's being discussed. (As it's being discussed all over the place, it probably does deserve it's own thread. Get busy chz! ;) )

 

The talk is that Bettman has mentioned going to unbalanced conferences (16 East, 14 West) w/ divisions based on time zones. So the West is pretty well obviously laid out w/ a quick look at your map and my guess is the 3 southern teams, Filly, DC, and the 3 NYC teams make up 1 of the 2 Eastern divisions. The top 4 in each division would make the playoffs and presumably they'd play w/in division to get a winner to battle for the conference.

 

If they do go to 4x4 for playoffs, as mentioned in several other threads, I'd prefer to see the 1st round w/in division, the 2nd have the 1's play the other 2's w/in conference, the 3rd round have the 1's play the other 2's across conferences, and then the 2 remaining play for the SC.

 

The benefit of this is that a single stronger team in an otherwise weak division doesn't get a defacto bye to the semifinals (see Chicago late '80's for reference), a division w/ several strong teams doesn't have to beat itself up just to get to the semis (see Adams or Patrick in mid-80's for reference) while teams in other divisions only have to play at most 1 tough team to get to the finals (see Eulers in '80's for reference), AND the best part is you could have division or conference rivals meet in the Stanley Cup Finals if they were the 2 best teams in the league. How cool would a Buffalo - Moe-ray-all final be?

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No topic exclusively devoted to this, but this is now at minimum the 5th thread where it's being discussed. (As it's being discussed all over the place, it probably does deserve it's own thread. Get busy chz! ;) )

 

The talk is that Bettman has mentioned going to unbalanced conferences (16 East, 14 West) w/ divisions based on time zones. So the West is pretty well obviously laid out w/ a quick look at your map and my guess is the 3 southern teams, Filly, DC, and the 3 NYC teams make up 1 of the 2 Eastern divisions. The top 4 in each division would make the playoffs and presumably they'd play w/in division to get a winner to battle for the conference.

 

If they do go to 4x4 for playoffs, as mentioned in several other threads, I'd prefer to see the 1st round w/in division, the 2nd have the 1's play the other 2's w/in conference, the 3rd round have the 1's play the other 2's across conferences, and then the 2 remaining play for the SC.

 

The benefit of this is that a single stronger team in an otherwise weak division doesn't get a defacto bye to the semifinals (see Chicago late '80's for reference), a division w/ several strong teams doesn't have to beat itself up just to get to the semis (see Adams or Patrick in mid-80's for reference) while teams in other divisions only have to play at most 1 tough team to get to the finals (see Eulers in '80's for reference), AND the best part is you could have division or conference rivals meet in the Stanley Cup Finals if they were the 2 best teams in the league. How cool would a Buffalo - Moe-ray-all final be?

 

Ok, I like the east west idea, and the cross conference semifinals would help deaden the effects of the unbalanced conferences. The only problem is this all falls apart if Phoenix relocates next season. The other problem with the timezone thing is that the western conference would have 2 divisions but 3 timezones, so it doesn't turn out perfect. On top of that, Arizona would start and end the season on pacific time, but would play most of the season on mountain time.

 

Anyway, if phoenix stays I like:

 

West Division: LAK, ANA, VAN, EDM, CGY, PHO, SJS

Central Division: DAL, WPG, STL, MIN, CHI, NSH, DET, COL

 

Northeast Division: CBJ, TOR, BUF, BOS, OTT, MON, NYI, PIT

Atlantic Division: NYR, NJD, PHI, TBL, FLA, CAR, WAS

 

I believe in the end they will balance the conferences and split the NYC TV market between 2 divisions.

 

If Phoenix leaves, all bets are off.

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AHL looking to change up too.

 

Chris Roy article today

 

So no more eastern teams playing the west teams and vice versa, and that’s something that Pirates ownership believes in as the best strategy for the league moving forward.

 

“We’ve got to be smarter about being more division heavy and conference only,” said Petrovek. “There are some teams that find it difficult to make it work, but that’s my focus and the focus of Phoenix (Pirates’ new AHL affiliate) as well.”

 

“We want these guys to travel reasonably, we want them to train off the ice, we want them to sleep and recover and I think the whole notion of trying to balance the (schedule) throughout the league is a non-starter financially and it simply doesn’t make sense from a player development standpoint.”

 

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AHL looking to change up too.

 

Chris Roy article today

I like the idea except for one item:

 

One team that was expected to move east were the Rochester Americans, but AHL President Dave Andrews said during the team’s press conference to introduce the Amerks new owner Terry Pegula that they were likely to stay in the west because of St. John’s.

 

I am not a fan of the Amerks getting stuck w/ a lot of travel to Abbottsford, Houston, etc. If they are still in the West but in a primarily Great Lakes or NYS centered division that plays the bulk of its games in division, I guess they could make it work; but I'd much rather see the Amerks playing in the East.

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I am not a fan of the Amerks getting stuck w/ a lot of travel to Abbottsford, Houston, etc. If they are still in the West but in a primarily Great Lakes or NYS centered division that plays the bulk of its games in division, I guess they could make it work; but I'd much rather see the Amerks playing in the East.

 

I have no idea why they even let Calgary move their team to Abbottsford in the first place. It's so far away from everything in the league. And now with Manitoba gone, they're even further out. But then again, with the way that franchise has been in recent years, they'll be moved again shortly.

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  • 2 months later...

What do you guys think will happen?

 

personally a 4 conference format seems awefull and they would need to change playoffs as well.

Dallas will probably favour this the most.

 

Moving detroit to the east would be a real shocker for the teams in the east, but i can't see them cutting down on a

chicago - detroit rivalry that looks to be fierce for years to come.

 

easiest fix would probably be moving the predators east to take the spot from Atlanta in the south-east, i give this move the biggest shot,

with columbus being the #1 outsider to move to the east.

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If Nashville was in the eastern time zone, they would be the ones to move, but it makes more sense for either Columbus or Detroit to go east. That having been said, if Quebec is going to get a team in the next few years (which seems likely), they may all stay put, especially if they get Phoenix.

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If Nashville was in the eastern time zone, they would be the ones to move, but it makes more sense for either Columbus or Detroit to go east. That having been said, if Quebec is going to get a team in the next few years (which seems likely), they may all stay put, especially if they get Phoenix.

 

 

My guess is the league will do whatever Detroit wants...

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  • 2 weeks later...

My guess is the league will do whatever Detroit wants...

 

Yep. Welcome to a six-game sked against the Red Wings. Please remember that they were miserably bad during the 70s, 80s, and the first bit of the 90s. They're the Red Sox of hockey, and should be treated as such.

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Why not three conferences?

Van, sj, la, Ana, phx, edm, cgy, win, col min

Nyr, nj, nyi, phi, wsh, fla, tb, car, bos, pit

Det, cbs, tor, buf,chi, stl, mon, ott,dal nsh

 

Not sure about playoffs, but this is really about regular season travel and marketing.

Personally I had no problem with the old one versus sixteen format.

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Why not three conferences?

Van, sj, la, Ana, phx, edm, cgy, win, col min

Nyr, nj, nyi, phi, wsh, fla, tb, car, bos, pit

Det, cbs, tor, buf,chi, stl, mon, ott,dal nsh

 

Not sure about playoffs, but this is really about regular season travel and marketing.

Personally I had no problem with the old one versus sixteen format.

 

At first blush, I thought this was a horrible idea. Gave it some thought and now, I don't. I would switch Dallas and Minnesota, though. (I know Minnesota borders Manitoba, but when I think of all the rivalries between Minnesota and teams in Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio--in college and pro sports, it makes sense to keep them together. And Dallas fits with the LA teams and Phoenix.) If they seed 1-16 for the playoffs, there is no need for an even number of conferences. Way to think outside the box, man.

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At first blush, I thought this was a horrible idea. Gave it some thought and now, I don't. I would switch Dallas and Minnesota, though. (I know Minnesota borders Manitoba, but when I think of all the rivalries between Minnesota and teams in Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio--in college and pro sports, it makes sense to keep them together. And Dallas fits with the LA teams and Phoenix.) If they seed 1-16 for the playoffs, there is no need for an even number of conferences. Way to think outside the box, man.

 

I like the idea of conferences meaning something in the playoff seeding. How about seed 1-3 of each conference and 4 wild cards to get in? I'm not sure how to convert that to 1-16 for the actual playoff matchups though.

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I like the idea of conferences meaning something in the playoff seeding. How about seed 1-3 of each conference and 4 wild cards to get in? I'm not sure how to convert that to 1-16 for the actual playoff matchups though.

 

I like your wildcard idea. How about this: Best conference winner #1 seed; second best conference winner #2 seed; third best #3 seed. Then nos. 2-3 from each conference and each of the 4 wildcards get seeded according to points.

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I like your wildcard idea. How about this: Best conference winner #1 seed; second best conference winner #2 seed; third best #3 seed. Then nos. 2-3 from each conference and each of the 4 wildcards get seeded according to points.

 

One note, I was thinking of the three-conference split, so I should have said top 4 from each conference (12 total), plus the next 4 best teams. How about seeds 1-3, conference #1s bby points. Seeds 4-12, conference #2-4 according to points, seeds 13-16 wild cards. That way there's a reward for being in the top 4 for your conference.

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