NHL Board of Governors Approve Team Realignment for the 2012-13 Season

Last night (December 5), the NHL Board of Governors (BOG) approved a plan to create 4 new Conferences, replacing the existing Eastern & Western Conferences, to be in effect for the start of 2012-13 NHL Season.

In discussions that apparently lasted only about one hour before approval was obtained, pending approval from the NHLPA, the four new un-named Conferences will be:

Conference A
New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Carolina Panthers, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers & New Jersey Devils (7 Teams)

Conference B
Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning & Florida Panthers (7 teams)

Conference C
Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues & Nashville Predators (8 Teams)

Conference D
Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Phoenix Coyotes, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche & San Jose Sharks (8 Teams),

This is a step toward a "balanced" schedule and aleviates some of the issue associated with travel schedules/late starts, especially in the Western part of the continent.

Each team within a conference will meet 6 times each regular season (with plans to alternate the # of meetings in the 8 team conferences); 3 meeting at home and 3 away; the remainder of the schedule will consist of each conference team meeting all the other teams outside their conference twice each season--one home and one away meeting.

The first round of playoffs will be intra-conference matchups...the top 4 teams from each conference will qualify and 1 will meet 4 and 2 will meet 3!  Subsequent rounds will be set up based on seeding so potenitally the Stanley Cup final could consist of two teams from the same conference (i.e., Toronto/Montreal...don't laugh too hard or Calgary/Edmonton, etc.).

Gary Bettman, in presenting this realignment approach to the BOG, had only considered one other realignment option for next season...move Winnipeg into the Central Division and shift Detroit and Columbus into the Eastern Conference (most likely the current North East Division). 

More details will follow...what do you think?  You can leave comments!

Current NHL Team Division Alignments: 2011-12