News today that the look of the NHL is one step closer to being different beginning next season as the NHLPA announced earlier it would approve the proposed NHL team re-alignment & revised playoff format proposal by the owners.
Pending NHL Board of Governors approval, the new structure, which would be put into place for next season, 2013-14, and it includes four new divisions: The Atlantic, Central, Midwest and Pacific in two conferences. The Atlantic & Central division would make up the revised Eastern Conference while the Western Conference would comprise the Midwest and Pacific divisions.
Notably, both the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets would move into the Eastern Conference, as both teams, now in the Western Conference, are the only two in that conference in the Eastern Time zone.
The Red Wings & Blue Jackets move into the Eastern Conference would result in all the teams in the revised structure being in the Eastern Time zone and would move the Winnipeg Jets into the revised Western Conference...as it is currently the only team in the Eastern Conference outside of the Eastern Time Zone.
The proposed divisions would look like this:
Eastern Conference:
Central Division: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto
Atlantic Division: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington
Western Conference:
Midwest Division: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg
Pacific Division: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver
The Western Conference has two fewer teams than the Eastern Conference. It was thought that would be a sticking point with the NHLPA in approving the re-alignment proposal since it means, in theory, it would be easier to earn a playoff spot in the Western Conference under the new playoff format (outlined below). But it appears this was not an issue!
A similar re-alignment proposal had been presented last season but the NHLPA, the union representing NHL players, rejected it, primarily due to some travel concerns some of the Western Conference teams had...these teams are spread over 3 time zones!
Notably, it was the Colorado Avalanche that expressed concerns because they had been grouped in the what is now representative of the proposed Pacific Division; however, with this draft of the proposed changes, the Avalanche move into the Midwest Division with all other teams there being in the Central Time zone.
Colorado is situated right in the middle of the U.S., so this solution sees them travelling less to the West and north to Alberta or B.C., although they are in a different time zone (Mountain) than the rest of the Midwest Division, these cities here are much closer to Denver in proximity.
The changes to the conferences and divisions will also results in both regular home and away matchups each season against teams in the other conferences; the current structure results in teams from opposing conferences only meeting each other once during a season and it alternates as to who is the home team.
A new playoff format also accompanies this new re-alignment of teams. The top three teams in each division earn postseason berths. The remaining four spots go to wild cards, the top two records in each conference. Potentially five teams from the same division can make the playoffs in any given season.
The first round of the playoffs will be "division based" with the top team in each division with the highest points from the regular season meeting a wildcard team, either from within the division, or if both wildcard teams are from one division, one would meet the first place team in the other division in the conference. In each division, the second and third place teams from the regular season meet each other.
The next two rounds of the playoffs would be intra-conference-based at that point and then the winners of the Eastern Conference square off against the Western Conference winner in the Stanley Cup final!
