After months of speculation, the NHL Board of Governors have come to a decision to totally realign the current conference setup.
The league has reportedly settled on a four conference setup instead of the two conference, six division format the league currently employs right now. Realignment became a hot button issue after Atlanta moved to Winnipeg causing an East/West imbalance geographically.
Here is how the new conferences could look…
Conference 1: Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto
Conference 2: Carolina, New Jersey, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
Conference 3: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver
Conference 4: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg
What’s being speculated now is how the playoff format will be setup next season. According to some reports, the NHL may adopt an inter-conference bracket playoff with the winner advancing to the semifinals. This could be comparable to how the NCAA Tournament is set up with its different regions and seeding.
Here is another description of the new playoff format via PuckDaddy…
• Divisional playoffs. The divisional playoff model setup, which helped create rivalries in the past, would be part of this realignment scenario. The top four teams from each of the four divisions would make the playoffs and battle it out for the first two rounds. After that, the final four will be re-seeded. Keep in mind, there would be no more East/West, Wales/Campbell, however you want it, so the possibility for a Pittsburgh/Detroit, Boston/San Jose Stanley Cup semifinal would exist.
Furthermore, the NHL may look to implement a more balanced schedule where each team would play one another at least once.
Ref: NHL.com, TSN.ca, ESPN.com, TheDetroitSportsSite.com, bukisa.com (image), PuckDaddy