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I have no idea. The divisions make no sense right now as is & I'm sure they wouldn't in your what if scenario either.

Not your fault for not knowing (you'd only know if you were following closely at the time), but this scenario was actually impossible. Atlanta Spirit Group owned the arena and was effectively kicking the Thrashers out. Thus, there was no arena to play in. The NHL was backed into a corner and had no choice.

A local group with Tom Glavine formed but they couldn't do anything because there was no arena to play in - and they couldn't afford to build a new arena.

The Red Wings moving west is DOA. The only realistic candidates are in the Central or Mountain Time Zones. Any return to Atlanta and/or Quebec City will have to be balanced with additional expansion in the west, or will be the result of another relocation.

Detroit fought tooth & nail to get into the East, and I don’t blame them.

I can confirm the Red Wings & their fanbase hated playing in the West. Never bugged me b/c they're only making trips to the Pacific coast a couple times a year. It's not like 10pm start-times were every other week.

In your scenario, maybe swap Columbus & Nashville? I always liked the idea of Nashville being with the other Sun Belt teams. Columbus also would hate moving to the West, but gives the Red Wings another East Time Zone team.

Here's a bit of a crazy idea for your scenario: Exchange Winnipeg & Buffalo. Again, another EST team for the Central, spreads some of the travel around more equal, & gives WPG Canadian rivals.

This is a set-up I came up with based on current teams. This is based purely on geography. There isn't an East & West conference. I tried a few different line-ups but like this one the best. 2 of the divisions have 6 teams, 2 have 7, & there's 5 divisions. Just the way it works. I have no idea how scheduling would work, but playoffs would be 1-8, none of this dumb wild card stuff.

Northwest:
Vancouver
Seattle
Calgary
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Minnesota

Southwest
San Jose
Anaheim
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
Arizona
Colorado

Sunbelt
Dallas
Saint Louis
Nashville
Carolina
Florida
Tampa Bay

East
Chicago
Detroit
Columbus
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Washington
Buffalo

Northeast
Montreal
Ottawa
Boston
New York
New York
New Jersey
Toronto

Things I like about this set-up: very geographically based. Sunbelt teams together, south west teams together, divisions similar to how they are in MLB/NBA/NFL. I wonder if 8 divisions of 4 would be better?

Yes, 8 divisions of 4 is better.

Northwest:
ED, CGY, SEA, VAN

Southwest:
SJ, ANA, LV, LA

Mountain:
WPG, COL, DAL, AZ

Central:
CHI, MN, DET, STL

Southeast:
NSH, CAR, FL, TB

East:
CBJ, PIT, PHI, WSH

Northeast:
MTL, OTT, TOR, BUF

Atlantic:
BOS, NYI, NYR, NJ

Conference set-up is like MLB & NFL, not an Eastern & Western conference.
One conference: Southwest, Northeast, Atlantic, Central
The other conference: Northwest, Southeast, East, Mountain
Seeded 1 thru 8.

One flaw I can see is Southwest would be playing a lot EST games, something the other conference doesn't have a problem w/ b/c the Northwest & Mountain are in same conference. Either way, I want to see the schedule lean towards playing as many teams equally as possible, not geared to scheduling division teams more. I used to hate a long time ago when the schedule was set up you only played the teams from the other conference once if that.

(05-20-2023 09:20 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  One flaw I can see is Southwest would be playing a lot EST games, something the other conference doesn't have a problem w/ b/c the Northwest & Mountain are in same conference. Either way, I want to see the schedule lean towards playing as many teams equally as possible, not geared to scheduling division teams more. I used to hate a long time ago when the schedule was set up you only played the teams from the other conference once if that.

Even for the conference with one "western" division, could only make a difference for four games, only two of which would be away. The assumption would be you okay the other conference twice (32 games), everyone in in your conference 3 times (45 games) and then your division a fourth time (3 games) for a total of 80 games. That said, a NFL-style alignment will increase travel for everyone; teams in the Northwest, for example will trade at least 4 away games in the Pacific Time Zone for games further east.

Although it would not be symmetric, I actually think a 6-5-5 lineup in each conference might work better, especially since the season is 82 games:

West 1 - VAN, SEA, CGY, EDM, CO
Central 1 - DAL, NSH, CAR, FL, TB
East 1 - NYI, NYR, NJ, PHI, WAS, BOS

West 2 - LA, ANA, VEG, SJ, AZ
Central 2 - CLB, CHI, STL, MN, WPG
East 2 - TOR, OTT, MTL, BUF, DET, PIT

The 4-3-2 format would still apply for scheduling; the east division teams get exactly 82 games in their format, while the West and Central Divisions get 81 games and therefore play an extra non-division game. Teams in the West Division of each conference would still get get 54 out of 82 games in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones (41 at home, 13 away). Teams in the East and Central Divisions get 69 out of 82 games in the Eastern and Central Time Zones.