NHL Division Re-Alignment 2012

[Fappin Raptor]

Columbus is half a degree or so more to the east than Detroit, not much difference.

 

[Ravin]

Columbus is half a degree or so more to the east than Detroit, not much difference.

And Nashville is actually considered 'southeast'. Kind of a big difference.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

That's why east and west is stupid. Just do away with it and go back to the old Wales and Campbell conferences.

 

[Rip]

Minnesota should be in Central imo.

 

[Blade]

They need to drop a couple of these teams before thinking of realignment......and they should probably get rid of this dumb east and west crap.

 

[Ravin]

That's why east and west is stupid. Just do away with it and go back to the old Wales and Campbell conferences.

The Wales and Campbell conferences were just names for the East (Wales) and West (Campbell). But I get the point, as then you don't have boundary lines to worry about. The only 'names' should be the group inside, and the league should try and do their best to put teams together and play games accordingly.

Issue is, there is like 18-20 'East-Central" teams, and 6 west teams.

West - Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, LA, San Jose, Phoenix, Anaheim and maybe Dallas

Issue is, with 30 teams you need to split it somehow down the middle. If they could figure out a system of 4 conferences/divisions and run it NCAA style I would be ok with that. Just put conference champions at the other end of each other so they won't play till the finals. But then again, if Vancouver makes it, one of the groups is going to have to fly across the map to play, so the only way for it to be "fair" is to basically rank the conference by top team. So 1v4 and 2v3. Meaning if say Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Tampa and Detroit all are conference leaders in that order, Vancouver/Detroit would be paired and Pittsburgh/Tampa's group would be paired. Would change every season.





Are as I said, put Nashville in the Southeast because all of this thought process is way to hard when a simple solution is there. You have 3 west teams wanting to be east teams and one spot. And sadly for your detroit lover, Detroit is the most west team.

They need to drop a couple of these teams before thinking of realignment......and they should probably get rid of this dumb east and west crap.

There really isn't any teams to drop that make it easier. Phoenix is obvious, but that is a west team, you need east teams to drop. And the only bad east team now that may "drop" is Florida. Every other east team is perfectly fine. (Maybe Ottawa)

 

[f16harm]

They would have to rename the divisions. Detroit in anything that says South is terribly incorrect.

The Indianapolis Colts agree.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

Division 1
Vancouver
Calgary
Edmonton
Winnepeg
Minnesota

Division 2
San Jose
Los Angeles
Anaheim
Phoenix
Colorado

Division 3
Dallas
St. Louis
Nashville
Tampa Bay
Florida

Division 4
Chicago
Detroit
Toronto
Columbus
Ottawa

Division 5
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Washington
Carolina
Buffalo

Division 6
New Jersey
NY Islanders
NY Rangers
Boston
Montreal

Just looking at the map this is something I came up with. Having 16 Eastern Time Zone teams and 14 non Eastern Time Zone teams makes things difficult to arrange them by time zones unless you go to a 14 & 16 team conference. If that were the case then you'd have to take out Florida and Tampa Bay, then move Chicago into that division and have four teams there and finally rearrange divisions 4-6. At the end of the day Nashville is still in the Central Time Zone and should remain in the 'West'.

 

[Ravin]

That is honestly way to much work just to make Detroit happy. It really is, and I think Detroit fans need to just learn to live with it, because if we follow what you put down, the biggest rivalry in the history of the NHL is gone. There is no way Toronto/Montreal cannot be in the same division. That is a massacre against the history of hockey. Sure Division 6 still has NY, Boston, Montreal, with the other three of the original 6 in division 4, but you just can't take that inter-division rivalry between the Leafs and Canadiens away. Not just to make Detroit happy.

Some things I have read is 2 divisions per conference, still with 15 teams, but one will have 7 and one has 8. I think this is the best idea because lets be honest, divisions mean shit. Two division winners would get 1-2 in the playoffs, the remaining 6 spots go to the rest of the conference. So even if you have 7 other teams in your division, you still have to be in the top 8. So that system works.

I think both Columbus and Nashville have more "legit" claims then Detroit. And there is a lot of work that would need to be done to move the Wings over.


In your outline fappin, you have the possibility that Florida/Tampa plays Vancouver in a playoff game. Why does either of those two teams have to travel that huge distance? Both are pure East coast teams, you are putting them in a mainly west division. I would hate to be tampa and play round one in Calgary, round 2 in San Jose, Round 3 in Vancouver in a playoffs. To me it is throwing both of them under the bus to make the Wings happen and it is funny because the claim detroit is making (want games in their time zone) is made just as worse, if not more with Tampa/Florida. I get what you were trying to do with group teams together, but you can't span that much. You can already hear the Tampa owners asking what they did to deserve playing in a "western conference" while Detroit gets the joy of playing with Chicago and Toronto and the rest of the east.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

There really was no thought into this except by looking at the map and grouping teams with teams in their close proximity. I really don't care what division/conference league we are in but it does suck when games come on at 10:30 at night and don't finish until 1:30-2 in the morning.

 

[Ravin]

See I wouldn't have an issue with this, except the Red Wings are the same team that come January sell their tickets for direct cheap because the fans would rather go watch basketball then hockey.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

Detroit has offered an interesting concession in all of this: a willingness to stay in the Western Conference if they only have to travel into Western Canada once instead of twice, and they only have to go into California once instead of twice.

 

[Ravin]

So Big Bob wrote an article on tsn.ca about all this and had plan A through G. So far I believe plan G he has is the best idea.

Four division system, and it would look something like this.

Pacific and Mountain Time zone teams -- Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Phoenix, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

Central Time zone teams and one Eastern team -- Dallas, Nashville, Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, Winnipeg and one of Columbus or Detroit

Another seven-team division would include one of Detroit or Columbus plus Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Boston.

eight-team division would be the three New York area teams -- Rangers, Islanders and Devils -- plus Philadelphia, Washington, Carolina, Tampa and Florida.

As said in the article "It would address the needs and desires of Dallas, Nashville, Detroit, Minnesota, Columbus, Winnipeg"

The regular season games would then be
- Home and home vs every team (58 games)
- 24 games made up against division teams (so 3 or so games more vs division)

The playoffs would then need to change to reflect the 'division' play. So it would be 1v4, 2vs3. I have no issue with this. Where the 'problem' comes is, the two divisions of eight would feel ripped off because they have more teams, and it is possible a 5th place in an 8 division could have more points then one in the 7 team division.

To me, this is pure bullshit thinking. You will play your division 5-6 times a season, you have more then enough to get into a playoff spot.

So I did the standings in the new divisions using last years points, and new divisions. Here is what I got:

*Note Dallas is 95pts not 98
* Blue indicates they made the playoffs last season

Playoffs
Division 1: (1) Vancouver vs (4) Phoenix, (2) San Jose vs (3) Anaheim
Division 2: (1) Nashville vs (4) St. Louis, (2) Chicago vs (3) Dallas
Division 3: (1) Pittsburgh vs (4) Montreal, (2) Detroit vs (3) Boston
Division 4: (1) Washington vs (4) Rangers, (2) Philadelphia vs (3) Tampa

Notes
- Los Angeles and Buffalo both miss the playoffs despite making it in the old system
- Both had more points then St. Louis who got in with the lowest at 87. Carolina and Calgary also had more points then St. Louis and missed the playoffs
- In my divisions I put Detroit in 3. Division 2 is the weakest and may need the Wings back to 'even things up'.
- Nashville is the lowest #1 seed with 99pts, despite 5 others having more around the league
- there was talk of doing a cross over if the 5th in one division has more then the 4th. So St. Louis would play Los Angeles in a one game playoff to make it through to the playoffs.
- Buffalo had more points then the Rangers, but Buffalo is in a 7 team division, Buffalo in an 8 team, so don't know how that would be addressed if needed. But I figure playing your division a lot, 4 teams would rise to the top.

So in some regards it isn't the greatest system as the central teams seem to be the weak links. But I really dont mind this at all. The NHL use to do it this way, and the other issue is really the extra two teams. But with 6 or so division games per opponent, that really puts a lot on the division aspect and I have no issue with anything. You play a possible say 42 division games, with the remaining 40 games being the other teams, so half the season is just your divison. No reason to complain.

 

[calgaryballer]

Not opposed to a cross over or something (a la CFL) if the best #5 is better than the worst #4. Otherwise that's an interesting system

 

[Awesometrax]

I think they should just keep it simple and do one of the following:

-Switch Winnipeg and Nashville
-Move Winnipeg to the Northwest, Colorado to the Pacific, Dallas to the Central and Nashville to the Southeast

 

[leaffan]

This setup is being voted on today I think.

4 Conferences. Each conference has 4 teams in the playoffs with each winner coming out in a final 4 which I think would be based on records. Every team would play a home and home with each other and then 4 or 3 games with each team in the conference.

Honestly this is a really good idea in terms of growth in hockey. I'm sure Tbay and Florida are easy yes's because of the exposure their teams would get thanks to playing more games in the north east. The revenue gained from those teams playing more home games against those teams would be benefitial.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

I like it.

 

[killgod]

I like it too

 

[StealthShot]

I'd swap Toronto, Boston, Buffalo for Pittsburgh, Washington, Carolina.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

I'd swap Toronto, Boston, Buffalo for Pittsburgh, Washington, Carolina.

Boston, Toronto, Montreal should remain together.