NHL Realignment News

jlog3000 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:47 pm

tute79 wrote:

A revised 4-division alignment is going to be submitted for approval for 2013-14:

Atlantic: NYR, NYI, NJD, Phil, Pit, COLUMBUS, WASHINGTON, CAROLINA (8)

Northeast (or will it be "East" ?): Mtl, Ott, Tor, DETROIT, Bos, Buff, TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA (8)

Central: Nash, Chi, St.L, WINNIPEG, MINNESOTA, DALLAS, COLORADO (7)

Pacific (or will it be "West" ?): CALGARY, EDMONTON, VANCOUVER, SJ, LA, Anaheim, Phx (7)

In the new format, you will play every team in the opposite conference Home and Away.

Playoffs: 1,2,3 from each division + 2 wild cards from each conference = 8 teams per conference.
I think the two 1's and the two 2's get home ice in the first round vs. the two 3's and the 2 WC's.

Supposedly, the NHLPA are more on-board with this.
Detroit and Columbus (both in Eastern time zone), are much happier with fewer west coast trips.

Some tweaks may occur over next few years, if Phoenix moves, and teams pop up in Quebec, Hamilton, Seattle, KC, etc....

Is it official yet? And I still believe that it needs two more teams (expansion or returning) to perfectly shape things up. Having all 4 "proposed conferences" consisting of 8 teams each, and possibly sub-divided into 2 sections of 4 teams within each conference.

tute79 · **Joined:** Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:25 pm **Posts:** 2131

Not official yet. But word is that the parties that were P.O.'ed at the previous version got to have input into this.

So it's expected to be voted on (I think in the next few weeks).
It has to be ratified by a certain percentage of team owners, and also by the NHLPA.

I don't know if there is mcuh support for expansion.
Expansion will typically happen when there are parties out there with deep pockets willing to pay an entry fee.

We may have a potential ownership group in Seattle, who are trying to construct a new arena (based on acquiring the Sacramento Kings).
Quebec always had rabid fan support.
A lot of players didn't want to go there for two reasons:
1. When the Nordiques were there, the players were paid in Candaian dollars which were wort about $0.70 at that time. That has changed.
2. Quite a few players didn't want to deal with a fan base that seemed to strongly favor French-speakers.
KC spent a pile of money on the Sprint Center, and has neither the NBA or NHL to show for it. About 5 years ago, they were bidding on the Penguins to move to KC.

jlog3000 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:13 pm

I see. But all I suggested that it should be upto 32 teams to have a well-balanced scheduled, not unbalanced, as far as equal-team conferences/divisions go.

SJSUFan2010 · **Joined:** Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:52 pm **Posts:** 473

New alignment was approved today

From a Yahoo article
"All teams will play each other both home and away at least once each season. And teams will play division rivals at least four times a season."

For the 8 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which is 72 games, 10 left
For the 7 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 6 division teams 4 times for 24 games which is 68 games, 14 left

At 32 it would be
24 teams twice for 48 games and 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which comes to 76 games, 6 left. I would just make the season 84 games and say you play the other division in your conference one more time.

jlog3000 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 14, 2013 4:20 pm

SJSUFan2010 wrote:

New alignment was approved today

From a Yahoo article
"All teams will play each other both home and away at least once each season. And teams will play division rivals at least four times a season."

For the 8 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which is 72 games, 10 left
For the 7 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 6 division teams 4 times for 24 games which is 68 games, 14 left

At 32 it would be
24 teams twice for 48 games and 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which comes to 76 games, 6 left. I would just make the season 84 games and say you play the other division in your conference one more time.

With that happening, looks like it'll be inevitable. If only the NHL would find 2 more expansions teams (obviously in the West side) to truly balance things.

fighting muskie · **Posted:** Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:15 pm

ncaanopaawaa2000 wrote:

SJSUFan2010 wrote:

New alignment was approved today

From a Yahoo article
"All teams will play each other both home and away at least once each season. And teams will play division rivals at least four times a season."

For the 8 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which is 72 games, 10 left
For the 7 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 6 division teams 4 times for 24 games which is 68 games, 14 left

At 32 it would be
24 teams twice for 48 games and 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which comes to 76 games, 6 left. I would just make the season 84 games and say you play the other division in your conference one more time.

With that happening, looks like it'll be inevitable. If only the NHL would find 2 more expansions teams (obviously in the West side) to truly balance things.

Seattle is inevitable. For the other city I'm thinking Kansas City or Milwaukee. They could always put a 2nd team in Toronto and put them in that midwestern division too.

jlog3000 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:22 pm

fighting muskie wrote:

ncaanopaawaa2000 wrote:

SJSUFan2010 wrote:

New alignment was approved today

From a Yahoo article
"All teams will play each other both home and away at least once each season. And teams will play division rivals at least four times a season."

For the 8 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which is 72 games, 10 left
For the 7 team divisions that's 22 teams twice for 44 games and the 6 division teams 4 times for 24 games which is 68 games, 14 left

At 32 it would be
24 teams twice for 48 games and 7 division teams 4 times for 28 games which comes to 76 games, 6 left. I would just make the season 84 games and say you play the other division in your conference one more time.

With that happening, looks like it'll be inevitable. If only the NHL would find 2 more expansions teams (obviously in the West side) to truly balance things.

Seattle is inevitable. For the other city I'm thinking Kansas City or Milwaukee. They could always put a 2nd team in Toronto and put them in that midwestern division too.

It maybe possible, but in case the league expands to 32 teams, each 8-team division can split into 2 4-team sections within; leading to another schedule structure.

pounder · **Posted:** Mon Feb 24, 2014 1:19 am

Geoff Baker (not a guy who's been really warm to issues of the proposed arena being worked in Seattle) attached to a story in the last 10 days about the NHL potentially making an expansion announcement after the now-concluded Olympics in Sochi.

http://seattletimes.com/html/hockey/202 ... 20xml.html

The announcement probably isn't that imminent, as an environmental impact statement draft is due in March. If that is approved and an MOU amended to permit the NHL to catalyze the building (an NBA team is currently required to trigger the agreement), it appears the NHL is ready to expand.

It does appear Seattle can't happen alone. Thing is...

Kansas City has indicated lukewarm interest. I guess there's an owner, but the city is making money off Sprint Center and won't easily give up revenue streams.

Milwaukee- not enough suites in the old building, not really the momentum to use NHL in a new building.

Houston- Les Alexander basically pushed away the AHL Aeros and seems to be blocking any notion of NHL in the arena now.

Portland- after the Coyotes saga was finished, a report came out in The Oregonian that Paul Allen was ready to buy the team, and more boldly, they were the top choice of the NHL. I believe there's a catch... Allen wasn't going to pay top dollar for the Coyotes. Mr. Baker, in an interview in Vancouver this weekend, made a comment about Seattle not really being ready, so the media here is keeping an eye out; that sort of confirmed the O story. It means nothing about expansion... Allen isn't going to pay for it the way Seattle is likely to do, especially if another Baker rumor is correct and Steve Ballmer becomes the lead investor. So, no Portland.

Someone inside the NHL dropped a whisper about Las Vegas. One of the major Vegas casino conglomerates is on the verge of breaking ground on a new facility that "could" host NHL or NBA, behind the New York New York property. Please note that the same conglomerate already runs MGM Grand Garden; so it's a subject of some intrigue. Possibly even more important; even though Vegas is in the Pacific Time Zone, there are so many direct flights from all over that it might make more sense to place them in the Central Division. However, it also makes sense to build this arena for bigger concerts and not necessarily a team.

Quebec is building an arena, has an owner; they're going to be ready. It may well be them.

jlog3000 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:25 am

Hope that the NHL will find the adequate 2 locations available to complete the puzzle for having 32 teams (with each division having 8 teams, and split into 2 4-team pods). That way, EVERYTHING will be fairly balanced, like the scheduling format for example.

pounder · **Posted:** Sun Mar 02, 2014 3:21 pm

ncaanopaawaa2000 wrote:

Hope that the NHL will find the adequate 2 locations available to complete the puzzle for having 32 teams (with each division having 8 teams, and split into 2 4-team pods). That way, EVERYTHING will be fairly balanced, like the scheduling format for example.

Pods? Try not to collegify everything.

(I'll promise from here on in to not use my English-grad wife's power to invent words without her permission and, perhaps, an environmental impact statement.)

jlog3000 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:00 am

pounder wrote:

ncaanopaawaa2000 wrote:

Hope that the NHL will find the adequate 2 locations available to complete the puzzle for having 32 teams (with each division having 8 teams, and split into 2 4-team pods). That way, EVERYTHING will be fairly balanced, like the scheduling format for example.

Pods? Try not to collegify everything.

(I'll promise from here on in to not use my English-grad wife's power to invent words without her permission and, perhaps, an environmental impact statement.)

Pounder - Oops, my bad on using the word "pod". But my intention was not to "collegify", it's simply to make scheduling format more fairly and evenly balanced. I'll explain to you eventually on what I mean, so you can get an idea or two.

TKthunder · **Joined:** Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:40 pm **Posts:** 1583

Its basically come out over the past few months that the NHL will expand but its unknown if it will be 2 or 4 teams.

http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Galla ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Las Vegas has been rumored to be a near lock for the first expansion team but those reports have been denied by the NHL.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/26379255 ... -las-vegas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Writer Howard Bloom of Sports Business News also tweeted on Tuesday the NHL was looking to expand by four teams by 2017. In addition to Las Vegas, Quebec City, Seattle and a second team in Toronto were eyed. Bloom reported the NHL would rake in $1.4 billion in expansion fees"

Seattle (Pacific) and Las Vegas (Central, or Pacific and move Arizona to Central) can be added to the Western Conference fairly easily if it’s just those two teams. If its 4 teams it only get crazier.

Personally I’d like to see Seattle and Vegas only, and for the NHL to realign similar to the NFL w/ 4 team divisions.

Western Conference
Northwest - Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg
Pacific – Seattle, Anaheim, LA, San Jose
Southwest – Arizona, Vegas, Colorado, Dallas
Midwest – Chicago, Minnesota, St Louis, Nashville

Eastern Conference
Northeast – Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa
Metro – Boston, NYI, NYR, NJ
Lake Erie – Detroit, Columbus, Pitt, Philly
South – DC, Carolina, Florida, Tampa

Edit: New link today from yahoo
https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck ... 03703.html

tute79 · **Joined:** Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:25 pm **Posts:** 2131

Supposedly Las Vegas will have an expansion team starting play in fall 2017. Soon to be announced, if not already official.

They will bump the westernmost division up from 7 to 8 teams.
That leaves one other 7 team division in the Western Conference.

Quebec was the only other team to apply for an expansion team, but from an alignment standpoint, the league needs another team in the Pacific, Mountain, or Central time Zone.

KC would work. They built the Sprint Center many years ago on speculation of NBA / NHL expansion. Unfortunately, no ownership group.

NHL (Bettman) seems to be waiting for something to materialize in Seattle. They are slowly coming together on a new building to house an NBA expansion team to replace the SuperSonics (now the OKC Thunder). If that building were designed to accommodate a rink, and if an NHL ownership group were to materialize, Seattle would plug in nicely to the Western Conference.

pounder · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2016 6:52 pm

tute79 wrote:

NHL (Bettman) seems to be waiting for something to materialize in Seattle. They are slowly coming together on a new building to house an NBA expansion team to replace the SuperSonics (now the OKC Thunder). If that building were designed to accommodate a rink, and if an NHL ownership group were to materialize, Seattle would plug in nicely to the Western Conference.

There's no "they" coming together. More like falling apart.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ear ... nba-arena/

tute79 · **Joined:** Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:25 pm **Posts:** 2131

great post, Pounder...

WOW - what a circus !!!

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