NHL could realign for 2007-08 season
/ FOXSports.com
Posted: 2 minutes ago
Six club executives met in New York this week with commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss sweeping potential realignment and schedule changes for the National Hockey League that could take effect at the start of next season, according to a TSN of Canada report.
Team officials and Bettman are considering realigning the league from six divisions to four with an eight-team division and a seven-team division in both the Eastern and Western Conferences.
It appears that issue could go to a vote at the January All-Star game in Dallas. And the change could be effective as early as the start of next season — if 20 out of 30 of the league's governors grant approval.
The motives behind the following proposed moves seem simple: the league wants to boost sagging television ratings while easing the burdens of cross-continent travel on their teams:
Under the new realignment proposal, the top two teams in each division would be guaranteed the top four conference playoff seeds with four wild card playoff berths going to the teams with the next highest point totals.
Teams would be realigned according to the time zones in which they play. The current Northeast Division (consisting of Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Buffalo and Boston) would, for example, have two more teams added to form a seven-team division.
The Atlantic Division (New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers) would get merged with four teams from the Southeast Division.
The Western Conference's eight-team division would contain teams only in the Pacific or Mountain Time zones (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Colorado and Phoenix).
TSN of Canada says the other Western Conference division would have teams from the Central or Eastern Time zones.
Teams' schedules could change so that division rivals play six times per season, and conference rivals would play three or four times. Non-conference games, on the other hand, would be played less often with teams possibly scheduling just one "cross-over" contest per season.