Friday night the NHLPA announced that they would block the proposed realignment which would have the league go from six divisions down to two and radically change the postseason format. The change was widely seen as very positive for the league and it’s fans so there’s obviously plenty of questions as to why the NHLPA rejected the proposal.
However, according to sources the NHL never included the NHLPA in the discussions for realignment because there was no requirement to do so in the current CBA.
Furthermore the NHLPA also outlined some of their concerns regarding realignment (UltimateHockeySource.com)…
• The unbalanced conference format, with two divisions of eight teams and two divisions of seven teams. Combined with the return to a four-team “divisional” playoff format, the players felt there was an unfair advantage to teams in the smaller conferences.
• The NHL trumpeted reduced travel for teams; for example, the Detroit Red Wings would only have to make one long swing to California and to Western Canada each season instead of multiple trips.
What the NHLPA wanted: Specific data on what the schedule would look like under this plan, to better understand duration of road trips, for example. What the NHL provided, according to a source with knowledge of the talks: Mileage charts per teams and other formulas. The NHLPA was not pleased.
• Basically, the NHLPA felt that this realignment plan was created by and for the owners, and not in the best interests of the players. And when they reached out to attempt to reshape the plan to better serve their interests, that input was rejected, according to one source.
Furthermore the current CBA expires on September 15th of this year so according to Aaron Eggemeyer of Crashing the Net, the issue of realignment could be used as a bargaining chip in the impending labor talks.
Ref: UltimateHockeySource.com, TSN.ca, Montreal Gazette (image)