My realignment idea is kinda long but bear with me.
The rumor from last month was that baseball was going to scrap divisions and just go with two conferences (leagues) so I wanted to play off of that.
Here are the baseball equivalents, as close as I could get. I listed the Diamondbacks as being in the AL west because they are one of 3 teams rumored to switch.
Advantages: balances travel so that there are east and west teams in each conference.
NBC's teams ie; major TV markets, winter classic prefered teams are split up evenly.
Other stats are balanced evenly: see chart below.
Disadvantages: Almost all the big rivalries are split up, however based on a flex scheduling, each team could have 1 or 2 preferred "interleague" opponents which wouldn't totally erase the rivalries.
AHC|American League|National League|NHC
Rangers|New York Yanks|New York Mets|Islanders|
Bruins|Boston|Philadelphia|Flyers|
Maple Leafs|Toronto|Atlanta|WPG Jets|
Lightning|Tampa Bay|Florida|Panthers|
CAR Hurricanes|Baltimore|Washington|Capitals|
Red Wings|Detroit|Pittsburgh|Penguins|
Wild|Minnesota|Milwaukee|NSH Predators|
Blue Jackets|Cleveland|Cincinnati|MTL Canadiens|
BUF Sabres|Chicago Whitesox|Chicago Cubs|Blackhawks|
NJ Devils|Kansas City|St. Louis|Blues|
Stars|Dallas|Houston|EDM Oilers|
Ducks|Anaheim|Los Angeles|Kings|
VAN Canucks|Seattle|San Diego|OTT Senators|
CGY Flames|Oakland|San Francisco|Sharks|
Coyotes|Phoenix|Colorado|Avalanche|
CAR=Close to Baltimore
BUF= Patrick Kane, Great Lakes
NJ=Former KC Scouts
VAN=Close to Seattle
CGY=???
WPG=Former ATL Thrashers
NSH=Milwaukee AHL
MTL=Cincinnati ECHL
EDM=Houston Oilers
OTT=???
Although I prefer no divisions, if you wanted to split them into divisions, it still could work. Each team is listed as across from one of it's "interleague" opponents.
Division|AHC|NHC
East|Boston|Montreal|
|NY Rangers|NY Islanders|
|New Jersey|Philadelphia|
|Toronto|Ottawa|
|Buffalo|Pittsburgh|
Central|Detroit|Chicago|
|Columbus|Nashville|
|Minnesota|St Louis|
|Tampa Bay|Florida|
|Carolina|Washington|
West|Anaheim|Los Angeles|
|Dallas|Colorado or SJ|
|Phoenix|San Jose or COL|
|Vancouver|Winnipeg or EDM|
|Calgary|Edmonton or WIN|
Splits
Category|#|AHC Teams|#|NHC Teams
Timezones||||
East|9||7||
Central|2|MIN/DAL|4|WIN/CHI/STL/NSH|
Mountain|2|PHX/CGY|2|EDM/COL|
Pacific|2|ANA/VAN|2|LA/SJ|
NBC/Winter Classic|4|BUF/BOS/NYR/DET|4|PHI/PIT/WAS/CHI|
Divisions|||||
Atlantic|2|NJ/NYR|3|PHI/PIT/NYI|
Northeast|3|BOS/BUF/TOR|2|MTL/OTT|
Southeast|2|TB/CAR|3|FLA/WAS/WIN|
Central|2|DET/CLB|3|CHI/NSH/STL|
Northwest|3|MIN/VAN/CGY|2|EDM/COL|
Pacific|3|DAL/ANA/PHX|2|SJ/ANA|
East|7||8||
West|8||7||
Original 6|4|NYR/BOS/DET/TOR|2|CHI/MON|
Canadian|3|TOR/VAN/CGY/(BUF)|4|WIN/MTL/OTT/EDM|
Stanley Cups|10|NYR/BOS/CAR/TB/TOR/DET/NJ/DAL/ANA/CGY|7|NYI/PHI/MTL/PIT/CHI/COL/EDM|
Dynasties*|2|DET/NJ|3|EDM/MTL/NYI|
90s Teams|7|TB/CAR/CLB/MIN/DAL/ANA/PHX|6|FLA/WIN/NSH/COL/SJ/OTT|
*subjective
Still working out a better scheduling system but with flex scheduling, it could look like this
Buffalo's schedule
Division (24)
TOR (3,3)
BOS (3,3)
NYR (3,3)
NJD (3,3)
Conference (30)
DET (2,2)
CLB (2,2)
MIN (2,2)
TBL (2,2)
CAR (2,2)
ANA (1,1)
DAL (1,1)
PHX (1,1)
VAN (1,1)
CGY (1,1)
Interleague (28)
OTT (3,3)*
MON (3,3)*
PIT (1,1)
PHI (1,1)
NYI (1,1)
CHI (1,0)^
STL (1,0)^
NAS (0,1)^
FLA (0,1)^
WAS (0,1)^
LA (0,1)^
SJ (0,1)^
COL (1,0)^
EDM (1,0)^
WIN (1,0)^
*Could schedule between 2 and 6 games vs preferred opponents, which could allow for shifting a few more games to other non-conference teams ie; WAS, FLA, etc.
^ would rotate each year from home to away