NHL Realignment Project – Week 39: Coyotes to Seattle

As much as a lot of us would like to see the NHL contract to 28 teams, the reality is it would take a massive collapse in league-wide revenues for that to happen. So franchise moves from city to city, and expansion, are the only reality-based changes the league will be seeing anytime soon.

Why contraction is not on the table

Beyond the revenue math, there is the matter of pride. Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors would do pretty much anything to avoid the egg-on-face press conference that would admit the league is overextended and that contraction is the only solution. Put bluntly, it is not going to happen.

Phoenix to Seattle, and nothing else

With the Seattle arena still in the news, week 39 ran with the very viable scenario that the only team-level change in the NHL for 2012-13 would be a relocation of the Phoenix Coyotes from their home in the desert to the Pacific Northwest's Emerald City.

The author noted the buzz around a potential Coyotes buyer being approved by the league, meaning approved as a possible buyer rather than an approved sale, and parked the implications for the following week. The task here was simpler: look at a Phoenix-to-Seattle move on its own.

Two conferences, six divisions, five teams each

Fans of the current set-up would mostly love this one. The plan kept the two conferences made up of three five-team divisions that has been the league's preference since 1998. Of all the realistic scenarios based on the current format, this was probably the favourite, and one the author would not be surprised to see implemented, at least until expansion or the Islanders, Panthers, Jackets, Lightning or Hurricanes throw a wrench into the works.

What makes the map work

• Seattle gives the Pacific five teams in the time zone, and on or near the Pacific Ocean, so the division name makes sense for the first time ever.
• Vancouver is peeled away from the two Alberta teams, which will ruffle feathers, but it is replaced by a rival in an amazing city only a three-ish hour bus ride from home.
• Dallas comes out of the Pacific, ending one of the longest divisional road trips in the league.
• Winnipeg comes out of the Southeast, where it never belonged geographically.

Those are the sensible moves. Detroit's yearning to be in the Eastern Conference is not appeased, but hopefully a smarter schedule would make the Red Wings a little less sad about it.

Still a favourite

What makes this version persuasive is restraint. Nothing is invented, no city is added, and no division is stretched across three time zones to make the map look tidy. It is the shape of the league with one problem solved, which is about as much as a realignment can realistically promise.