Article:What the NHL should look like!

The NHL seems to be thinking of what it will do with the franchise in Phoenix but the team seems to be on life support so why keep the team there? This would be a perfect time to expand and realign some teams in the league.

I think if the NHL does finally agree to let Phoenix move to Hamilton they should expand by two teams the perfect two choices would be Winnipeg, Canada since they do have a great fan base and support for hockey in the NHL, there stadium can hold 15,003 and there team was moved not because of lack of fan support but was sold to pad the owners wallet and the other team being Seattle, USA who have shown some love for hockey and average about 5000 fans a game in the WHL and have had games were they have passed 10,000 they are close enough to Canada and do get snow so winter hockey is a past time, the stadium in place currently holds 15,177 for hockey.

These two teams may need to build larger stadiums but they would be great hockey markets for new NHL teams.

The NHL could then realign and have 4 Divisions per conference of 4 teams, and since both Winnipeg and Seattle are in the Mid to West Coast this would mean that Detroit, Columbus or Hamilton could be moved to the Eastern Conference.

I'll go with Hamilton moving to the East.

The New Divisions could look something like this

Eastern Conference

Division 1 Toronto Maple Leafs Montreal Canadiens Ottawa Senators Hamilton ????

Division 2 Boston Bruins Buffalo Sabres Pittsburgh Penguins Philadelphia Flyers

Division 3 New York Rangers New York Islanders New Jersey Devils Washington Capitals

Division 4 Tampa Bay Lightening Florida Panthers Atlanta Thrashers Carolina Hurricanes

Western Conference

Division 1 Detroit Red Wings Chicago Black Hawks St Louis Blues Columbus Blue Jackets

Division 2

Minnesota Wild Nashville Predators Colorado Avalanche Dallas Stars

Division 3 Edmonton Oilers Calgary Flames Vancouver Canucks Winnipeg ????

Division 4 San Jose Sharks Los Angeles Kings Anaheim Ducks Seattle ????

The teams 82 game schedule would be broken down like this

Divisional: 6 games x 3 teams = 18 Games Conference: 4 games x 12 teams = 48 Games Opposite Conference 8 games at home versus each team of 2 divisions and 8 road games against each team of another 2 divisions.

Example of Toronto Maple Leafs Schedule

6 games each against Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton

4 games each against Boston, Buffalo, Philly, Pittsburgh, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Washington, Carolina, Atlanta, Florida and Tampa

1 game against each team in the Western Conference 8 at home and 8 away games.

Teams would rotate the following year if they were the road team then the home team the next year.

What do others think? Which two teams should be expanded into league? What should the divisions look like?

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