Division Realignment Idea

[kvladimir]

New plan.

Same set up with 32 teams, 2 conferences, 4 divisions, 8 playoff seeds from each conference, etc. but every year there is a lottery draw on what division each team plays in.

Yeah some East teams and fans might have to stay up past 9:00 pm more than three times a year but the trade off would be that half the West teams would probably end up with better schedules.

I cannot physically say "no" loudly or deeply enough

 

[Chan790]

I'm okay with nearly any proposal that keeps Carolina with the rest of the metropolitan belt of the US Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and out of an infernal Southeast division.

 

[castle]

I'm struggling to find the problem that needs to be fixed here.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

I am bothered by how south Florida and Tampa are when they should be in what is called the Metro. But I later learned they're in the other division because not only are all the Metro teams close together, but because they could give the teams in the coldest climates a break.

 

[qc14]

The divisions as they are currently are perfectly fine and don't need changing at all.

Things will need to change once Atlanta and Houston get teams and they go to an 84 game regular season but until then don't mess with something for no reason

 

[Jumptheshark]

Terrible for Detroit, Buffalo, and Toronto to play so many games outside their time zone.

TO would nuke it. That many games out west would affect the TVratings

 

[glenngineer]

Division 1: NJD, NYI, NYR, PHI, STL, DAL, UHC, SJS
Division 2: BOS, MON, OTT, TOR, CHI, MIN, EDM, VGK
Division 3: BUF, DET, CBJ, PIT, WIN, CAL, SEA, VAN
Division 4: FLO, TBL, CAR, WAS, NAS, COL, ANA, LAK

Each division has 4 EST and 1 MST. Each division also has 1 CST and 1 PST. The last 4 teams, 2 CST and PST each got split into a division.

Tried to keep it as fair as possible but with the way the CST, MST and PST teams are split up, it's hard to do.

I'm sure there are variations but this is where I landed if you want travel to be somewhat fair for all teams. And no, I didn't do the math on mileage.

 

[BLNY]

The divisions as they are currently are perfectly fine and don't need changing at all.

Things will need to change once Atlanta and Houston get teams and they go to an 84 game regular season but until then don't mess with something for no reason

I agree that there is no pressing need for realignment without expansion. In the event of that, or if the league actually had a creative bone in its body, you could scrub the idea of 4 divisions. Going to 8 divisions would allow for perhaps the best possible alignment. 6 division with 4 teams and 2 divisions with 5 teams.

Below keeps Montreal and Toronto together, which the league wants. It's got most of the old Patrick Division back together, which makes too much sense. Southeast. Cali/Nevada. A central division. A 'great lakes' division. A US mountain range to Texas division. A northwest division. All teams are close. All but 2 divisions have their teams in one time zone.

Still 16 teams in the playoffs. I'd be reluctant to go to a bye system like the NFL does, but playoff seeding could be done in a similar fashion. Each conference, 4 division winners and 4 "best of the rest".

Montreal​	Rangers​	Vancouver​	Winnipeg​	Carolina​	San Jose​	Utah​	Columbus​
Boston​	Devils​	Edmonton​	Minnesota​	Atlanta​	Los Angeles​	Dallas​	Penguins​
Ottawa​	Flyers​	Calgary​	Chicago​	Florida​	Anaheim​	Houston​	Buffalo​
Toronto​	Capitals​	Seattle​	St Louis​	Tampa​	Las Vegas​	Colorado​	Detroit​
​	Islanders​	​	Nashville​	​	​	​	​

 

[chaz4hockey]

What's you are thinking of as "weird geography" (I'm guessing largely the fact that the Florida teams and Carolina are in different divisions) is actually a measured attempt to balance the number of smaller-market teams with larger-market teams in each division.

Not a perfect balance, obviously, since the Atlantic has 4 original 6 teams, but this is likely one reason the Southeast Division failed (not just lack of success by the teams in that division) - majority of games that are against other teams that are relatively new and don't have much hockey history, but are geographically close.

TBL/FLA vs. WSH/ATL/CAR, as opposed to DET, TOR, MTL, BOS, BUF, OTT, vastly different in terms of appeal to the local fans.

Same with CAR vs. TBL/FLA/WSH/ATL, as opposed to NYR/PHI/NJD/NYI/PIT/WSH/CBJ, much more local market appeal with the New York area teams, and Philadelphia/Pittburgh.

What would Toronto and Montreal fans do without their ability to snowbird to Florida and see their teams against Tampa and Florida?

 

[Chan790]

Division 1: NJD, NYI, NYR, PHI, STL, DAL, UHC, SJS
Division 2: BOS, MON, OTT, TOR, CHI, MIN, EDM, VGK
Division 3: BUF, DET, CBJ, PIT, WIN, CAL, SEA, VAN
Division 4: FLO, TBL, CAR, WAS, NAS, COL, ANA, LAK

Each division has 4 EST and 1 MST. Each division also has 1 CST and 1 PST. The last 4 teams, 2 CST and PST each got split into a division.

Tried to keep it as fair as possible but with the way the CST, MST and PST teams are split up, it's hard to do.

I'm sure there are variations but this is where I landed if you want travel to be somewhat fair for all teams. And no, I didn't do the math on mileage.

Did...did you create 4 tiered divisions running east-to-west the entire width of the continent?