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| Image from http://www.tomfulery.com/2017/12/15/2017-18-nhl-alignment-map/ |
Both the Eastern and Western Conferences have two divisions each. All but the Central Division (in red) have 8 teams. However, this map doesn't do the best job illustrating distance between divisional opponents. For that, take a look at the map below.
As both maps clearly illustrate, there is a huge collection of teams in the northeast, a handful throughout the middle of the country, and a cluster on the west coast. Those spread out throughout the country provide the biggest challenge when it comes to realigning the NHL once Seattle gets a team.
Once Seattle is added, the location of teams will look like this:
With time zones added in:
16 of 32 teams are in Eastern Time Zone. 6 in Central, 4 in Mountain, and 6 in Pacific. This creates a scheduling nightmare, but for my realignment, I'm not focusing on the specifics of scheduling. Instead, I'm going to focus on keeping teams in divisions that make geographical sense and attempt to limit inter-divisional cross timezone games. I'm also throwing rivalries, out of conference games, playoff mechanics, etc. out the window.
With these conditions, there are pair of main layouts.
Four Conference Layout
The first option is a four conference layout. A North (greens), East (orange/yellow), South (reds), and Western (blues) Conference, each two divisions, with four teams per division. The map below shows this.
With this map six teams would have to travel to another timezone, but that is minimized by the fact that the furthest divisional opponents are only a three hour flight apart (this honor is held by the Arizona Coyotes and St. Louis Blue's).
NFL/NBA Style Layout
The NFL has two conferences, with a North, South, East, and West division in each. Using the map above, you could take a division from each color group and throw them into one conference. This would create two, 16 team conferences, with four, four team divisions in each.
Right now the NHL's East and West Conferences don't work (in the real map) and they wouldn't make much sense in my map either. So what about North and South Conferences? Here's what it might look like:
The Northern Conference is in green and the Southern Conference is in blue.
If we are going all in with the NFL style, the playoffs could work the same. Each division winner gets into the playoffs and two teams with the best records of the remaining 12 get a berth. The top two division winners get a huge advantage (when it comes to hockey) by getting a bye.
My Thoughts
Personally, I prefer the four conference layout. It gives the league more flexibility when it comes to the regular season (how many divisional and conference games) and the playoffs (the amount of teams and how the bracket is structured), it creates and/or reinforces tons of regional rivalries, and simply makes the divisions nicer.
I hope you enjoyed this. It's definitely different than what I normally write about. I am planning on doing one for both MLB and the NBA in the near future. Please let me know what you think, subscribe via email, and share this.
All graphics without a listed source were created by me.
