I'm sure we each have our own ideas about how the impending NHL re-alignment should be done. I just thought I'd throw out my idea of a 3 conference NHL out there. Yup that's right. I'm dividing the league up into 3 10-team conferences.


3 Conference Re-alignment (6, 5-team divisions & 3, 10-team conferences)
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Western Conference

Pacific Division
Vancouver
San Jose
LA
Anaheim
Phoenix

Mountain Division
Edmonton
Calgary
Colorado
Winnipeg
Dallas
==================
Central Conference

Southeast Division
Washington
Nashville
Carolina
Tampa
Florida

Midwest Division
Chicago
St. Louis
Detroit
Columbus
Minnesota
==================
Eastern Conference

Northeast Division
Toronto
Ottawa
Buffalo
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia

Atlantic Division
Montreal
Boston
NY Rangers
NY Islanders
New Jersey
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Scheduling
6 Division games (24)
4 Conference Games (20)
2 Games againtst 19 non-conference foes(38) (1 different non-conf team is skipped each season)
82 Games Total (41 Home & 41 Away)
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Playoffs
16 Teams Ranked 1-16
Division Winners get the top 6 seeds (current tie-breaker rules are used)
Teams are re-seeded each round

Round 1
1 (President's Trophy, Division Winner) VS 16
2 (Division Winner) VS 15
3 (Division Winner) VS 14
4 (Division Winner) VS 13
5 (Division Winner) VS 12
6 (Division Winner) VS 11
7 VS 10
8 VS 9

Round 2 (teams re-seeded, division winners seeded highest)
1 VS 8
2 VS 7
3 VS 6
4 VS 5

Round 3 (SCQF, teams re-seeded, division winners seeded highest)
1 VS 4
2 VS 3

Round 4 (SCSF, teams re-seeded, division winners seeded highest)
1 VS 2
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All-Star Game
Use the draft format pioneered in the 2010-2011 season.
Team X VS Team Y
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Pros
+Teams that do well in the regular season have a better draw in the playoffs hence there is more incentive to play well.
+Travel Problems during the regular season are much diminished as are concerns about playing a lot of road games outside of time zone such as for Columbus and Detroit.
+Chance of having mammoth SCF series between teams that you couldn't see today. (WAS VS PIT for SC / DET VS CHI for SC / BOS VS MON for SC)

Cons
-All teams now have a chance of drawing competition in the playoffs outside of their timezone. IE (BOS VS PHX).
-No Western Conference Champion or EC Champion awarded during playoffs.

Your thoughts and ideas?