During the 2012-13 regular season of yesteryear, the NHL and NHLPA agreed to a restructuring of the league’s divisions. The new NHL Realignment is a drastic departure from the old system of 6 divisions divided equally into 2 conferences. When the 2013-14 NHL regular season begins, there will be 4 divisions. In the East – 2 divisions of 8 teams. In the West – 2 divisions of 7.
The NHL is a league of 30 teams. The realignment splits the conferences unevenly, breaking a fourteen-year span of 15 teams in the East and 15 in the West. Dividing the conferences into two groups of 15 no longer makes sense from a geographic standpoint because the East side of North America is home to more teams than the West side. In the previous system, some NHL clubs in the Eastern Time Zone were forced to exist in the Western Conference, creating an unfair travel schedule for players and inefficient travel costs for owners.
With the NHL realignment in place, teams from the Eastern Time Zone, the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets, are enjoying a refreshing escape from demanding trips to the Western Conference. In the previous system, the Wings and Jackets were forced to fly throughout the American South, the Midwest, and the West Side of North America over the course of an NHL season. Teams just a little farther east on the map had the luxury of playing in the Eastern Conference, where they avoided such rigorous routes to their next game destinations, plus some road trips.
In 2011, the Eastern Time Zone Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, creating a serious time anomaly. The Winnipeg Jets operate outside of the Central Time Zone. With the CST Winnipeg Jets playing in the Eastern Conference and the EDT Red Wings and Blue Jackets playing in the West, the schedule needed to be fixed.
The new divisional format was supposed to be in place last season, but the NHLPA voted against the Realignment in 2012-13. Perhaps the pending NHL lockout prevented the AP from taking a stance on major changes to the game at the time. With the lock on in the rearview mirror, the realignment was finally approved last March.
NHL Realignment – The New Divisions
Western Conference – Pacific Division
Anaheim Ducks – Calgary Flames – Edmonton Oilers – Los Angeles Kings – Phoenix Coyotes – San Jose Sharks – Vancouver Canucks
Western Conference – Central Division
Chicago Blackhawks – Colorado Avalanche – Dallas Stars – Minnesota Wild – Nashville Predators – St. Louis Blues – Winnipeg Jets
Eastern Conference – Metropolitan Division
Carolina Hurricanes – Columbus Blue Jackets – New Jersey Devils – New York Islanders – New York Rangers – Philadelphia Flyers – Pittsburgh Penguins – Washington Capitals
Eastern Conference – Atlantic Division
Boston Bruins – Buffalo Sabers – Detroit Red Wings – Florida Panthers – Montreal Canadiens – Ottawa Senators – Tampa Bay Lightning – Toronto Maple Leafs
NHL Realignment Playoff Structure:
As of now, the playoffs are no longer a free-for-all for a spot within the top 8 in the conference. Just like the old days, NHL clubs will meet their division rivals in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs under the NHL’s new realignment system. The Conference Finals will feature the surviving team from, say, the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division and the remaining team from the Eastern Metropolitan Division.
Where NHL Realignment differs from the division structure in the early 1990s is the introduction of a wild card. The last time the NHL used the go-first division structure was between 1992 and 1993. In 1993 and years before, the four best records in each of the league’s 4 divisions made the playoffs. Through two rounds, one of those four teams would stand, crowned division champion, and advance to the conference finals to play the winner of the other conference division.
This time, the top 3 from each of the league’s four divisions will be guaranteed a birth in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Instead of allowing the top 4 from each division, NHL Realignment reserves the bottom two playoff spots in each conference for the top two records, not including the teams that rank in the top 3 in their division. Thus, if the fourth- and fifth-place teams in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division finish the season with more points than the fourth-place teams in the Eastern Conference’s Metropolitan Division, both make the playoffs and the Metro is only represented by 3 teams.
Because you cannot have a tiebreaker format with 5 tiebreaker teams from one division and 3 from the other, wild card teams are subject to crossover. When the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, the best overall record in the Eastern Conference is played by the Wild Card team with the fewest points, regardless of which division that team plays in.
4 divisions. 2 per conference. The top 3 teams in each division secure a spot in the playoffs. The top 2 records from each conference, not the top 3 in their division, qualify as Wild Card teams. The best record in the conference is played by the lowest-seeded wild card team. *Wild card teams may be subject to crossing over to neighboring division in the playoffs.
Let’s say the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Metro Division and finish with the most points in the East. And the Toronto Maple Leafs finish fifth in the Atlantic, yet they finish the season with more points than the fourth-place team in the Metro. Assuming the scenario mentioned above occurs, the Toronto Maple Leafs will enter the Stanley Cup playoffs as the lowest ranked Wild Card team, therefore, they will cross paths and compete against the best record in the East, a member of the Metropolitan. It’s the NHL Realignment’s way of ensuring the best teams make it to the playoffs.
It is also quite possible that the joker will not interfere. There are two divisions within a conference, therefore that conference will have two fourth-place teams. If the two fourth-place teams have the best records outside of the top 3 in each division, they both make the playoffs. If the best team record in the conference belongs to the first-place team in the division that hosts the lower of the two fourth-place teams, all is well and the wild card doesn’t work, or it works, but doesn’t alter the traditional format of the playoffs.
If the NHL wants to crown division champions once again, like the old days, then there is a chance that a Division A team could become Division B champion. If the Toronto Maple Leafs start the playoffs within the group from the Metropolitan Division playoffs due to their wild card status, they will remain in that bracket for the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. This creates the possibility of two teams from the same division meeting in the conference finals.
The NHL realignment’s biggest flaw: If the top two teams in a conference play in the same division, they’ll likely meet in the second round of the playoffs, rather than possibly meeting in the conference finals with the previous system. It is very possible that this will happen this season in the West, between the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues.
The NHL realignment was only agreed to for a three-year period. After three years there will be a reevaluation of the realignment with the possibility of two expansion teams joining the National Hockey League.
Sal Ientile, editor of The Hockey Daily
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Twitter: @TheHockeyDaily
