NHL realignment: Where might Winnipeg go?
Speculation has been rampant for some time about the details surrounding the NHL's possible return to Winnipeg. What would the relocated team be called? How would the uniforms look? When would the first home game be?
With buzz picking up this week that the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers are in talks to sell their franchise to Winnipeg-based True North Sports and Entertainment, a lot of hockey fans are already wondering what division the Jets/Moose/whatever would play in next season if the sale and subsequent move go through.
Here are a few ideas, based on various reports, Twitter chatter and our own research. As an aid, consult this map of current NHL team locations.
A Winnipeg team would, of course, be horribly misplaced in the Southeast Division — Atlanta's current home. The easiest fix seems to be a three-stepper: move Winnipeg from the Southeast to the Northwest (with Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Colorado), move Minnesota from the Northwest to the Central (with Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis and Columbus) and move Nashville from the Central to the Southeast (with Washington, Tampa Bay, Carolina and Florida).
This plan preserves the 15-15 balance of teams between the Eastern and Western Conferences (Winnipeg/Atlanta shifts from the East to the West, Nashville from the West to the East, and Minnesota stays in the West).
It also increases the number of Canadian-based teams in the Northwest to four, adding fuel to the existing blaze of hockey-hotbed rivalries in that division, which should please the Winnipeg team's owners and fans.
Nashville would have to play all 12 of its divisional road games an hour ahead of its time zone, but, travel-wise, a move out of the Central wouldn't be too arduous for the Predators, who are located in a sort of neutral space between the cities in their old division and their new one.
Minnesota is also located in no-man's-land between the other Northwest and Central cities, but a shift to the latter division would allow the Wild to play half its divisional road games in its own time zone, as opposed to none under the current alignment.
Sounds like everyone would be happy, right? Well, maybe not.
The Detroit Red Wings have long been rumoured to be unhappy in the Western Conference, where they play only three of their 32 intraconference road games (the ones against Columbus) in the Eastern time zone. So they could be loathe to let a realignment pass without getting in on the action.
More recently, the Blue Jackets have reportedly expressed a desire to switch to the East. If only one of those teams can go, seems like an easy call, right? The Red Wings are one of the NHL's signature franchises. The Blue Jackets are, well, the Blue Jackets. But Columbus has a couple of arguments in its favour: first, it (not Detroit) is the easternmost city in the Western Conference. Also, while the Red Wings are a financially stable franchise, the Blue Jackets are reportedly losing tens of millions of dollars a year. Perhaps the NHL would prefer to help them by cutting travel costs.
Many more teams will probably want a say in any potential realignment plans (they, too, have travel costs to worry about and rivalries to protect), but it's unclear how much sway any individual club may wield. According to the NHL's constitution — parts of which were filed in Arizona bankruptcy court two years ago amid a dispute between the NHL and then Coyotes owner Jerry Moyse — the schedule (and, by extension, divisional alignment) is determined by the commissioner. Clubs can submit comments on the proposed schedule before it's finalized, but there's nothing to say the commissioner is bound to act on those comments (Update: the NHL's board of governors must approve any realignment).
There, then, are a few hints on how a possible move may impact the league. As for the name of the Winnipeg team? Hometown legend Neil Young had a lovely song on the great Rust Never Sleeps record called Thrasher. Just sayin'.
