Relocation Revisited...Again

In the midst of all the Jarome Iginla craziness, the NHL did the smart thing and snuck a Phoenix Coyotes update in the middle of the whole ruckus. With this announcement, the big thing that Bill Daly actually admitted is that it's almost the time for relocation-- specifically Quebec City, Seattle, and the dark horse to end all dark horses, Kansas City. With the NHL saying they will talk to the players about it before the playoffs, as well as keep the line open to investors-- we could actually be heading towards an end game.

Of course, you have the front runners that are going to be Quebec City, who's arena is planned to be built by opening night of 2014, and Seattle, who will probably get an arena based on what happens with their NBA cohorts. However, the inclusion of Kansas City is an interesting one. Considering the AEG contingency own the Sprint Center and many owners wouldn't want to pay rent on it-- it leads me to believe that if there's some inkling of an ownership, Kansas City could steal this relocation.

The reason I think this is almost geographical. Consider the fact that the NHL probably won't go to Seattle if the NBA doesn't go there because it seems the NBA is the end all be-all for getting a new arena in that area. Also, take the point that Quebec City is out East with the Coyotes out west; the crazy realignment that has taken place already would be ruined. All this mean is that should the Coyotes move to Kansas City, it wouldn't completely break the realignment up and maybe allow Colorado to move to that more west division.

Granted, should Seattle actually get the Sacramento Kings (a decision to come by early to mid-April), then the obvious choice outside of keeping the team in Phoenix would be Seattle because it keeps that division together. One hurdle is whether or not the NHL thinks that the Key Arena is able to hold a hockey team in the meantime. Also should be noted that many believe that Quebec City could and should be the front-runner  thanks to the success that Winnipeg brought back to their area of the hockey world with the Thrashers moving to become the Jets. Even so, that whole realignment thing could really screw Quebec's chances now more than ever. You can't just move the Coyotes out east and realign again without screwing over the Red Wings or Blue Jackets, as well as making the Blue Jackets a target for relocation in the next five years, possibly.

Kansas City has often been a rumored site, especially since Mario Lemieux leveraged a visit to Kansas City in order to get a new arena in Pittsburgh, as well as the Predators being rumored to go to Kansas City during their turmoil in 2007. Yet, like I alluded to earlier, the fact the owner would not own the actual building may be the hurdle that KC has to overcome in order to fill that vacant arena. It is the second smartest move after Seattle if we're looking in terms of realignment, but the lack of the building ownership would be a huge turnoff.

However, this is all just speculation. The NHL is still fielding local ownership ideas first, which means the joy that is Ice Edge Holdings leader Anthony LeBlanc has re-emerged to look at buying the team and is working with Alberta investment banker George Gosbee to work out a deal for the team and then with the City of Glendale for leasing, which won't be an easy task. I wonder if other former suitors will come back into the fold again...but who's to say they will be as welcomed as they were in the past.

In a deal that has gone on two years too long, there's still not a clear finish line up front. For some reason, no one wants to let the Coyotes go to a new destination, but no one is working that hard to keeping them in the place they're at now. It's quite the rock and hard place that the NHL has gotten into; which is almost of their own making. Stalling on things doesn't make them magically disappear-- just get more troublesome with time.

On the Topic Of Realignment

With the NHLPA agreeing to realignment, it's now up to the NHL to actually approve it and for it all to actually go into effect for the 2013-14 season. As the NHLPA stated, it'll be a two-year starter to be re-evaluated; which could also be the timeline to see if expansion could be a viable option for the league. While the realignment will bring about uneven conferences (16 in the East, 14 in the West), there are many more positives than negatives to come out of it. 

First, this could have saved the Columbus Blue Jackets. They are a team who have been floundering in the West for years, and while they have been marginally better against Eastern teams (83-76-28 as per Aaron Portzline's Twitter); the travelling for the Jackets will be less strenuous (on the team and the finances), the fans of visiting teams will be more available to travel to Columbus with Detroit, Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo within a somewhat reasonable drive for a road trip-- albeit somewhat longer than usual, it's a fun drive (from Baltimore it was, at least), and it could give the Blue Jackets a puncher's chance of being in the top three of the division or getting one of the Wild Card spots. 

That's the second one, the playoff format will bring more of a revenue stream to the NHL, helping the financial health of the league. Basically, in both conferences-- the top three in their division will be in the playoffs and the other spots to "Wild Card" team, which will also bring back the divisional play-out to get to the Conference finals. The Wild Card teams will be the two best records in the conference who don't have a playoff spot and the worst record Wild Card team will play the top record Division team. Many loved the old-school model of Divisional play meaning something-- for more than just being the top in the Division in order to get a top-three seed in the playoffs. 

A final one for me is the regionality of it all....minus the Florida teams who really get hooped in all of this. Yet, aside from the rest of that division having a tractor beam bring up the Florida teams, all of the other teams are regionally based, which will create an increased rivalry for most teams. Granted, while most teams in the old Northeast Division are intact, teams like the Red Wings will join that fray; plus the Caps are back in the old Patrick Division, which is where most of their hatred for the Pens and Flyers first sparked up. Though, many in the West are as spread out as always, they have a little bit more condensing, though the Red Wings leave the Blackhawks out to dry in terms of the rivalry deal. 

Overall and obviously, this is a good thing for the game. It brings some rivals back together, maybe creates some new ones, and only really breaks up one big-time Original Six rivalry. As well, it leaves the Expansion Card to be used to even out the conferences, though they'll have to realign again if there are not two Western markets to compensate-- especially since Seattle is the only real legitimate West Coast market that has been teasing the thought of a team. This experiment will get two years, but here's to the hope that it continues beyond that. 

Salvation in Realignment??

The picture above is what everyone is raving about today. During the Board of Governor's meeting, 26 of the 30 teams approved of the idea, with only NHLPA agreement needed for ratification. The jist is that it's four different "conferences" (let's just call them divisions....or "confervision")-- two with eight, two with seven-- and then the top four will go to the playoffs, then move on from there.

While it's great news for people who love divisional playoffs (me especially), it could be interesting for some teams when it comes to this whole thing saving some franchises. Columbus and Phoenix do get a bit of a reprieve, but now it just seems that the one "confervision" that will be interesting to see if two of them will survive in the next five/ten years.

When it comes to the old Northeast Division plus the Florida teams will be the most interesting set to look at-- especially with the future of the Florida Panthers. However, it would prime them to move to Quebec City, leaving Tampa in the lurch hoping for another realignment. You can imagine that the Lightning and Panthers were two of the four teams to not approve of this, and rightfully so-- the closest team in there "confervision" to each outside of the state of Florida is Boston (1,237 miles from Miami, 1,183 from Tampa); which is.....quite the haul for the home-and-home scheduling that seems to be formatted.

The Bolts are on good footing with their new ownership group restructuring themselves perfectly from the Oren Koules/Len Barrie bedlam that happened, so I don't think they'll have issues with the travel costs. The Panthers on the other hand, I feel a little sketchy about. Sure, they've been doing well this year, but still 21st in attendance with just over 15,000 people going to their home games, which is right around their average. There's been questions about their stability for a while, even with them being bought in 2009, but it's not as widely reported as other teams like the Coyotes and Atlanta Thrashers.

Sure, there's some teams that this realignment helps, which is great-- that means hopefully less issues of which team is in peril this week and snap moves in the summer like we saw this past summer. Yet, you're always going to have the questions-- particularly when you have teams more than 1,000 miles from their nearest competition outside of their own state.

Realignment Assignment

If we are to believe the Irish god of Twitter, Bob McKenzie, then the Detroit Red Wings will be the newest member of the Eastern Conference in the Southeast Division, sliding the Winnipeg Jets over to the Western Conference in the Central Division.

I'll let that sink in for a second, while you try-- like me-- to figure out how this is possible.

For one, the Red Wings are further north than the Columbus Blue Jackets-- who could really use the move to the Eastern Conference because of the monetary woes they have been having. Greg Wyshynski pointed it out perfectly in this tweet. Hell, even the Nashville Predators would make a little more sense to be in that area in terms of location; though they are in another time zone and about 200 miles further away to their closest rival than the Wings or Jackets are.

Regardless of the outcome-- the tin-foil hat brigade will be other on either side.

If the Red Wings move: Then the Wings haters will be all over the NHL for saying that the Wings have the NHL by short hairs and forced this move to have an easier schedule, though they have been doing very well in the Western Conference even with the travel.

If any other team moves in lieu of the Red Wings: Then the Wings fans will get up in arms about how the NHL doesn't want them to win and that because of their history-- they should be able to move to the East and have a lighter travel handed to them.

Either way, the NHL is in a lose-lose situation here. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Not so much the distant, the fact that the Red Wings would lose the rivalries they have with the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, and even the Nashville Predators if they moved west; though if the Preds move-- that would screw that up, but whatever. My point is that you can't have a team that has a rival base like that up-and-move because they feel they have some kind of stroke with the league.

Logically, the Blue Jackets would be the best. They don't have any natural rivalries in the West, they're in financial peril and could use the break in travel, plus they're closer to the Southeast Division than the Wings. I'm not a fan of the Predators moving due to the time-zone, but at the same time-- it would fit in to the geographical logic.

With brings me to this point, the NHL needs to realize that they geographical assignments to the divisions don't work. Hell, the divisions should exist anymore. Since teams don't have to play out of their divisions to move along-- why even have them at all?? Send the best eight teams out of the Conference to represent them in the Stanley Cup Finals rather than having to make sure that every division has a team in there, even if they aren't worthy enough-- like the Southeast Division was for years. There's really no need to have the geographical assignments with teams out of whack-- like Minnesota in the Northwest Division.

If the NHL wants a divisional setting-- you'll have to have uneven divisions of seven in one, eight in the other, and have the top-four from each go to the playoffs, play out of the playoffs, and then move onto the winners out of the division go to the Conference Finals-- much like in the days where there was a Patrick, Adams, Smythe, and Norris Divisions out there.

The debate will never not make sense to one side or another and the debates will rage on. Now, if the Blue Jackets or Phoenix Coyotes end up moving to Quebec City-- then problem solved, but that's just me stirring the pot. We'll just have to wait until December.....a long December.

Why Divisional Realignment is Silly

With the Winnipeg market pretty much assured a team (if the Board of Governors eff this up, oh boy will there be riots); the move now is what's going to happen with the Divisional alignments after the 2011-12 season. While I've touched on this recently, the more I think about it.....the more idiotic it gets.

I did the math for the distances from Winnipeg to the 29 other NHL teams using Google Maps. To no surprise, the top-1o teams were all Western Conference teams, but also, four of the last six teams on the distance list were all Western Conference teams (Anaheim, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose), then Nashville being in the middle of it all. For the East, Florida and Tampa Bay screw the pooch for the East, rounding the average to 1,600 miles for 14 teams to the 1,249 miles for 15 Western teams. Sure, air travel will help cut down on some driving routes, but still-- something to chew on when it comes to saying the East would be killer for Winnipeg to travel. It's bad, but not as bad as thought to be, especially with that new aero-plane device we've been hearing so much about. (Email me at Scotty.Wazz@Gmail.com if you care about the chart)

More over, you take out Detroit from the West to the East, Western average is 1,277 and East is 1,550. With Columbus; 1,251 in the West and 1,574 in the East.

Then while doing the Face Off Hockey Show in the past weeks, I think JonnyP, Marc "With a 'C'", and myself came to realize.....the divisions don't really matter anymore. With the playoff alignment being as they are, you don't have to really play out of your division like you had to two decades ago. All the divisions mean is that you have at least on representative in the playoffs and you play those teams more often. It's not like in the '90s when you had to actually play out of your division to get to the Conference Finals; therefore making the divisional rivalries actually mean something.

To that wit, I think it doesn't matter where you put Winnipeg now. Especially with Gary Bettman saying the scheduling will be more balanced after the 2011-12 season, the ideal of divisions really don't hold the same brunt as they once did. You're still going to have to travel around North America and the distances will be extreme for some teams over others. You're still going to have the top-8 in the Conference make the playoffs, or top-7 and a divisional leader that is well behind and gets a courtesy spot.

Unless the NHL can find a way to get all the teams into four divisions (two in each conference), the idea of divisions are only for a top-3 spot in the conference standings. Personally-- you should just take out the divisional aspect of it all and actually have the best eight teams in each conference duke it out to represent for the East and West. If you can't play out of your division and have to be crowned divisional champion because of regular season triumphs-- why even have them at all??

Realignment Assignment

Yes, the title rhymes, big whoop, wanna fight about it??

Anyway, stupid Eric Francis was on last night's Hockey Night in Canada Hot Stove segment (what'd he have to do to get that??) and he said that should the Atlanta Thrasher relocation-- not only would they have three weeks to do it, that the Detroit Red Wings wouldn't be moving to the East because it would take a Board of Governors vote and he claims that they wouldn't be able to do it in time for next season.

First off, stupid Francis doesn't realize this is the NHL-- they can do whatever they want, whenever they want and in as little time as possible. If they want to move the team, they'll have to have a vote on that, right?? Why wouldn't you actually vote on conference change as well?? Moron.

Secondly, I'll never understand why the Red Wings should be in the Eastern Conference. Sure, their fans would love it because the Western Conference is a tough conference, not just in competition, but also because of the fact of the travel isn't that rough. It's much easier for the Wings to have a field day in the East and be in contention every year. However, if the Red Wings leave, you put the Blackhawks as the only Original Six in the West and that rivalry will diminish slightly because of the infrequency of meetings.

For me, and I've said this on here and on The Show, the Columbus Blue Jackets should be moved over to the East. This way, I think they can compete a little better because the Jackets are a young team and follow into the Eastern "style", as it were. Not to mention, they're geographically closer to the Eastern Conference teams than the Red Wings; the fact they would have a hope at a playoff shot, would get the likes of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby go into their barn more frequently (bringing the people in), and could be more desirable to a player who wants to be in the East, but with a team who has a chance of making the playoffs. The Jackets have a lot of cap room and plenty to build on.

You can read more about the ripple effect this could cause from other aspects on Pro Hockey Talk, but still-- I think if Atlanta moves and Winnipeg is the destination; Columbus goes to the East in the Atlantic, Philadelphia goes to the Southeast; Winnipeg to the Central. Logistically, it makes sense and I think it could very well go off without a hitch, but PHT does tease other things and is worth the read.

In the end, the Red Wings shouldn't be left as the only Eastern Time Zone team in the West, but at the same time; there's so many rivalries they have out West to pick from with the Wings-- it'll take a hit when it comes to Western rivalries.