Looks like we are really close to having a team back in Winnipeg, except it's not the Coyotes. It's the Thrashers. Shockingly, hockey in Atlanta isn't a good idea.

http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news ... html?thx=y

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Team Cutler.

This may mean the end of Nashville in the hawks division, right? Somebody is going to have to move to that Southeast division - assuming Winnipeg doesn't fit there.

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This would be the second time Canada has taken a team from ATL. Perhaps they should get the hint. More Canadian teams less warm weather teams.

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In order for hockey to be profitable in the South, the teams have to be good. There are no life long, generation to generation hockey fans there so if the team isn't winning, people aren't showing up.

The Leafs consistently get 19K plus in their building and they've been awful lately. It's good for the league to have as many teams in Canada as possible.

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Team Cutler.

I thought that the Phoenix Coyotes were the ones relocating back to Winnipeg, not the Atlanta Thrashers...The Coyotes may be playing in a relatively new arena in Glendale, AZ, but they've had cash issues on the whole and have been unable to find a sucker, I mean buyer, after Jerry Reinsdorf's group pulled out of the bidding a while back.

Wouldn't it have to be Detroit or Columbus moving to the East? Those are only two Eastern time zone teams left in the western conference.

I would think it would be Columbus moving to the East. EVEN the NHL isn't stupid enough to kill the Blackhawks/Red Wings rivalry.

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Never put anything past Garry Bettman.

I've heard it might be Nashville. Columbus would make the most sense I think. Nashville is starting to develop a nice little rivalry with the the Central division.

It would be sad to see Rick Nash less, he's a monster

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Team Cutler.

But how can we dismantle the awesome Columbus/Minnesota Wild rivalry?

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Great, now Byfuglien will finally get the recognition that he deserves to finally become a Norris finalist...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

I'll take that cash you owe me anytime now.

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Don't you fret, you'll get your money eventually you lucky bastage you...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

Detroit has been crying for years to get back into the east.

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My proposal I think it would promote regional rivalries.
Five divisions, top 16 teams in the playoffs:

Original six:
Chicago
Detroit
Toronto
Montreal
Boston
NY Rangers

South East
Tampa
Florida
Carolina
Nashville
Washington D.C.

East
Pittsburgh
NY Islanders
Buffalo
Philadelphia
New Jersey

Canada
Vancouver
Calgary
Winnipeg
Ottawa
Edmonton

West
LA
Anaheim
San Jose
Phoenix
Colorado

Midwest
Minnesota
St. Louis
Columbus
Dallas

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Oh wait, you were being serious

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Why not? Why stay with the way things are?
The divisions in the NHL are pretty arbitrary already, go ahead and realign the teams.

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For one, they're not going to get rid of the 2 conferences. Having a league wide playoff system without conferences would become too confusing and would also disintegrate some of the great playoff rivalries as there would be less of a chance for teams to meet year in year out. Think back to classic NHL rivalries and you think of many playoff meetings between teams (Det vs Col, Chi vs Van, etc etc)

Second of all, you have a division with 6 teams and other divisions with 4. No way that will happen for the obvious reasons.

Thirdly, I doubt they want to take all their marquee original 6 teams and lump them together in one divsion while at the same time having a division such as the midwest with absolutely no national interest.


Sorry Corey but its just an awful idea on many (all) levels.


Now if you want to talk about changing the schedule around so teams don't have to play so many interdivisional games I would be all in favor of that, but with increased travel costs even that might be unrealistic these days.

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2 things:
1. You are right about the last point, make the schedule more balanced is the key to my system otherwise the 4 team division is unfair (but hey, they do it in MLB)
2. You might be overestimating the aura of the original six, people in nashville or anaheim really don't give a crap about the original teams. if you make sure each team plays at least 1 home and home series would be better than the current system...

Also, you are right about the top 16 it may ruin the playoffs

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Uhhh.....this is 6 divisions.

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The Rowan Atkinson-looking NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman denies that a deal with the Atlanta Thrashers & a group that would relocate the franchise to Winnipeg is complete. If the Thrashers indeed move North of the Border, it means 2 things. First, Atlanta once again can't support an NHL franchise some 3 decades after the Flames left for Calgary. Second, is Winnipeg going to build a new arena for the current Atlanta franchise? I think that is what drove the former Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix to become the Coyotes...

Yes it is 6 divisions.
Shakes and I can't count today.

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They were never in the East. Toronto used to be in the West.

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When are the Whale coming back?

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

In part. Bad arena/worse arena management/worst CDN$ is what killed the Jets.

Winnipeg built the MTS Centre about six, seven years ago. 15,000 seats, which is awfully small for an NHL barn, but Winnipeg is awfully small for an NHL town, so the supply-demand curves are in relative harmony. What gives the Senators trouble is that whatever they're calling the Palladium this year has like 20,000 seats in a metro of just over a million, so walk-up tickets are relatively easy to procure and not enough people feel the need to prepay for season tickets or mini-plans. There's a chance they can jury-rig the MTS to fit another 2,000 seats or so if they need to, but jury-rigging a building to artificially inflate capacity numbers irrespective of how good the new seats actually are is what made the old Winnipeg Arena such a nightmare:




Not soon enough. One of the Whalers' former owners (the one before the skulleted creep that owns them now) is operating the Rangers' AHL team as "the Connecticut Whale" to demonstrate that the love is still there. Unfortunately, the Hartford Civic Center is still there, so I wouldn't count on them coming back till UConn and a prospective ownership group can get a new arena proposal together. Right now, the only seriously interested party for an NHL team is in Quebec City.

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i am not really a fan of hockey, but the winnepeg jets had some excellent looking uniforms i think. id like to see that look again if they get a team back.

They were pretty pedestrian, actually. The Nords had cooler uniforms. Powder blue.

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They've always been in teh west, but they have also wanted to move to the east. They are in the eastern time zone, and most of their road games are on very late.

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My point was that they can't get back to being in something they were never in anyway. As long as the NHL has aligned its divisions on a geographic basis (they had some real clusterfucks once, like Vancouver-Hartford-Washington-Long Island-Minnesota or something), Detroit has been with fellow midwestern and Great Lakes teams: Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, Toronto, Winnipeg. It would be illogical for them to be with eastern cities.

Columbus is the team that would move east because they're on the verge of complete economic collapse and are as likely a team as any to move to Quebec City.

EDIT: oh, here it is
1979–1981 NORRIS DIVISION
Detroit Red Wings
Hartford Whalers
Los Angeles Kings
Montreal Canadiens
Pittsburgh Penguins

And that was before Wal-Mart Airlines was the official air travel sponsor of the NHL!

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Plan 1: Move Nashville to the SE, Minnesota to the C, Winnipeg to the NW.

This makes the most sense to me, because you will have Nashville playing alongside other hick teams in the south, and Minnesota will play against other natural rivals in the great lakes region, like Chicago and Detroit. Winnepeg would be in the NW with all the other western Canadian teams.


Plan 2: Move Dallas to the SE, Vancouver to the P, Winnipeg to the NW.

This works with Dallas not having to play against rivals two timezones away, Vancouver could bring a Canadian presence to the Pacific division, and Winnepeg still would have nearby rivals in Minnesota, Calgary and Edmonton.

Plan 3: Move Nashville to SE, Dallas to the C, Vancouver to the P, and Winnepeg to the NW.
Dallas would play teams in their own timezone and renew rivalries with the Hawks and Wings.