94 replies to this topic

[GMRwings1983]

That's not true, they could do it like baseball's American and National leagues. Then all teams would have to travel a ton. Or they could do a North-South Conference. I guess the only way to make it equal is to make it so everyone has to travel more, not less.

That's what I hinted at in the part below what you quoted. Just have an Eastern and Western Conference, with no divisions and 8 playoff teams in each Conference.

Don't know if they'll ever do away with the divisions altogether, but it's a thought.

[IllinoisRedWingsFan]

Not a fan of it. My question is what if Phoenix moves to Quebec City next year?

[evilmrt]

Sounds interesting enough, re-alignment is way overdue. I'm not sure about the divisional matchups in the first round...although that could lead to some good playoff rivalries. It could get old after 3 or 4 seasons though.

As far as Phoenix moving to QC the season after next?...then more whining ensues lol.

[hooon]

There's still a possibility of a Northern/Southern Conference setup. Adopting the 6 division setup, most of the divisions remain intact while some get a swap of a few teams. Both conferences travel from coast to coast.

Northern Conference:
Northwest:
Vancouver
Calgary
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Minnesota

Midwest:
Chicago
Detroit
Toronto
Ottawa
Montreal

Northeast:
Buffalo
Boston
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
New Jersey

Southern Conference:
Southwest:
San Jose
Anaheim
Los Angeles
Phoenix
Colorado

Southeast:
Dallas
Florida
Tampa Bay
St. Louis
Nashville

Atlantic:
Carolina
Washington
Columbus
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia


My favorite part about this setup is that all of the Original Six teams are in one conference.

Not bad but switching Buffalo and Montreal makes much more sense geographically based on those divisions.

Also I'd change the name to Central instead of Midwest since very few of those cities are actually in the midwest.

Edited by hooon, 23 June 2011 - 06:58 PM.

[lookalive07]

Good points. I felt a little weird putting Montreal in that division, but it felt fun to have 4 O6 teams in one division

Although 3 and 3 looks better.

[RedFX]

Not a fan of the "top 4 making playoffs" idea....

[pjgj13]

Realign if they MUST but DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT make the playoffs a "top 4 in each division". There could be the chance that the last place team in one division COULD be better than the 2nd place team in the other division and that would be BS!!

I have always said get rid of the conference affiliations!! Either make the division 5-6 team divisions or 6-5 team divisions. How about having 1 team from each region in each division??

Something like this --

PHI, MON, CAR, STL, EDM
SJ, PIT, BUF, WIN, COL
VAN, ANA, NYR, TOR, FLA
DET, CAL, PHO, NJ, OTT
WAS, NAS, MIN, LA, NYI
BOS, TB, CHI, COL, DAL

That way, there would be no short travel road dates for the east and no long west coast trips for the west.

NO AUTOMATIC QUALIFIER for winning the division!!!!!!! Seed the entire playoffs like the NCAA tourney!!!!

[Manoir]

I think NO divisions and just a straight 1-30 seeding is the way to go. Every team gets an equal amount of travel and it protects against teams moving and throwing the conferences out of whack (if PHX moves to Quebec city for example). Playoffs would be top 16 which would not guarantee that the Eastern teams would not have to travel as much. The only issue would be to protect rivalries, but most of those are geaographically based anyways so you'd adopt a formula where a team plays another team that is within a certain amount of miles away x number of times.

[Buppy]

Bettman's just teasing us. He can say he's moving us East to gain our trust, then he'll reveal the rest of his plan:

Move all the other West teams to the East, and all the East teams to the West, then relocate the Prime Meridian to Central Asia, thus placing all of the US west of Pittsburgh in the Eastern hemisphere, to give some logic to the whole thing.

[Majsheppard]

Not a fan, I like the way it is set up now.

[13dangledangle]

I not only like the fact they admit a change is needed with the current set up, I also (very surprisingly) like what they choose...Creepy.

[dirtydangles]

bettmans a total f***tard. thats the worst idea. hoard all the best teams in the eastern divisions and only allow 4 per division to make the playoffs? f*** that. the divisions involving the teams from the south and the west are gonna be so s***ty and they make the playoffs over better teams....

[Konnan511]

Re-Elect Bettman! The man to move the Wings to the East!!!

[55fan]

You guys realize the only reason Bettman is putting the possibility of Detroit moving east in a couple seasons out there is because he knows (just like we all do) that in December 2012 the ancient Mayans will return from the seventh dimension and team up with the Reptilian aliens from Nibiru to destroy the earth and enslave humanity.

No can do. The Nibiru Aliens were traded to Philly this afternoon for Pronger and future considerations.

On topic: I don't like lopsided divisions, but if they put Edmonton and Toronto as the extra teams, it'll all even out in the end.

[Shoreline]

Bettman's just teasing us. He can say he's moving us East to gain our trust, then he'll reveal the rest of his plan:

Move all the other West teams to the East, and all the East teams to the West, then relocate the Prime Meridian to Central Asia, thus placing all of the US west of Pittsburgh in the Eastern hemisphere, to give some logic to the whole thing.

This sounds like it should be a commercial for the NHL Network, following their old theme of "making our defence our offence and our offence our defence".

Sounds interesting enough, re-alignment is way overdue. I'm not sure about the divisional matchups in the first round...although that could lead to some good playoff rivalries. It could get old after 3 or 4 seasons though.

As far as Phoenix moving to QC the season after next?...then more whining ensues lol.

Hopefully Doucheman folds the Ducks and has Selanne hired at Disneyland as a mascot of one of the Looney Tunes characters.

[Never_Retire_Steve]

Wow.

Interesting idea, but they should either have 4 divisions with divisional playoffs to create rivalries and have more games within that division per year or totally scrap divisions and just have 2 conferences with balanced games and 1-8 seeding

[SouthernWingsFan]

Any idea to get the Wings to the Eastern Conference is a good one. Yes, I'm selfish in this regard. *shrugs*

+1 for Bettman, which is probably going to be rare.

[VM1138]

Love the changes, especially to the playoff format. I can't believe Bettman actually came up with something brilliantly inventive. I've been wanting for years a mixup of playoff opponents. I hope it gets approved!

I'm not so concerned about rivalries. Most teams already have one and I imagine those will stay.

My only complaint is that the divisions should be done away with altogether. Or instead of letting 4 teams in each division in, just do the top two or something, and then let the bottom teams seed so that there's less chance of a worse team making it in over a better team that is ranked lower in their own division.

Edited by VM1138, 24 June 2011 - 08:39 AM.

[stevkrause]

WILDCARD *******!

Div 1:
Minnesota Wild
Chicago Blackhawks
St. Louis Blues
Dallas Stars
Colorado Avalanche
Phoenix Coyotes
Nashville Predators
Detroit Red Wings

Div 2:
Anaheim Ducks
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
Vancouver Canucks
Winnipeg Jets
Edmonton Oilers
Calgary Flames
Detroit Red Wings

Div 3:
Detroit Red Wings
Pittsburgh Penguins
Toronto Maple Leafs
Ottawa Senators
Montreal Canadiens
Buffalo Sabres
New York Rangers
Boston Bruins

Div 4
Tampa Bay Lightning
Florida Panthers
Carolina Hurricanes
Washington Capitals
Detroit Red Wings
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
Columbus Blue Jackets
New York Islanders

[GMRwings1983]

Honestly, this may offend some people, but this is what my dream NHL would look like. A combination of the late 80's, plus several of today's franchises.


Smythe

Canucks
Flames
Oilers
Sharks
Kings
Avalanche


Norris

Wings
Blues
Blackhawks
Maple Leafs
North Stars
Jets


Patrick

Penguins
Flyers
Rangers
Islanders
Devils
Capitals


Adams

Canadiens
Bruins
Sabres
Nordiques
Senators
Whalers


That's 24 total teams. Obviously, I would contract several franchises and move some others around. I know it would never happen, but like I said, this is what I prefer the divisions to look like in my dream world.