NHL Realignment Idea For 2012

With Winnipeg replacing Atlanta in the NHL next year and playing this season in the Southeast division, realignment for the 2012-13 season is a necessity. I think that the NHL should take this opportunity to not just realign the divisions and conferences, but to really restructure the league in a way that will encourage local rivalries and ensure that the 2 best teams are playing each other for the Stanley Cup.I had a brainstorm today of what that could look like and was kind of impressed with myself and how it worked, I had to share it.

First of all, forget 3 divisions in 2 conferences. That's gone. In fact, conferences are gone altogether. In this structure, there will be 4 independent divisions (2 with 7 teams and 2 with 8 teams). To keep the current 82 game schedule, each team will play the teams in the other divisions twice (1 home and 1 away) and play teams within their own division either 5 or 6 times, depending on if they're in a 7 or 8 team division. For teams within the 7 team division, it's simple: play each team in your division 6 times. For teams within the 8 team division, it's a bit more complicated: you have to have to imaginarily split the division in half (play teams within your half 6 times and the other 4 teams 5 times). That will work out to 82 games in total, half home and half away. Go ahead and do the math... I'll wait.

The top 4 teams in each division will make the playoffs. The first round will be played intradivision (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3). After the first round, the remaining 8 teams will be ranked according to their regular season points and then 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7, and so on, reseeding after each round, as the playoffs do now. Finally, 2 teams are left that are from any division... even the same.

Pros for this concept:

• More games vs local rivals during the regular season
• Guaranteed first round matchup vs divisional rival
• The best 2 teams in the league can meet up in the Stanley Cup Final, even if they are in the same division.  This will enable possible finals like: Montreal vs Toronto, Detroit vs Chicago, Edmonton vs Calgary, New York vs Boston, LA vs Anaheim or even the epic Tampa vs Florida.
• Games against out-of-division teams are perfectly balanced for all teams in the league

Cons for this concept:

• What do you do with the conference championship trophies? Since the ridiculously superstitious players never seems to want to touch it anyway, you could just stop awarding it and keep it in the Hall of Fame.  Or my idea is that you just designate one semifinal to be the Campbell series and the other the Prince of Wales series... doesn't have to be east or west.

Here's a possible new divisional alignment:

West Division	South Division
Vancouver	Florida
Calgary	Tampa Bay
Edmonton	Nashville
San Jose	Dallas
Los Angeles	Carolina
Anaheim	Colorado
Phoenix	St. Louis

East Division	North Division
Boston	Montreal
New York Rangers	Ottawa
New York Islanders	Toronto
Buffalo	Detroit
New Jersey	Chicago
Pittsburgh	Columbus
Philadelphia	Minnesota
Washington	Winnipeg

Anyway, that's my bright idea. I can dream, can't I?