One of the things that still need to be finalized by the league before training camps begin is the divisional realignment that will be required for the upcoming season. Though there have been reports previously, nothing has been nailed down to this point other than the “All-Canadian” division that is almost guaranteed to be one of the four thanks to strict border protocols. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic is reporting that his sources are now suggesting a new alignment, which includes a return of the battle of Pennsylvania among other things.
The current (unnamed) re-alignment proposal would look like:
Boston Bruins
Buffalo Sabres
New Jersey Devils
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins
Washington Capitals
Carolina Hurricanes
Columbus Blue Jackets
Detroit Red Wings
Chicago Blackhawks
Florida Panthers
Minnesota Wild
Nashville Predators
Tampa Bay Lightning
Anaheim Ducks
Arizona Coyotes
Colorado Avalanche
Dallas Stars
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
St. Louis Blues
Vegas Golden Knights
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
Montreal Canadiens
Ottawa Senators
Toronto Maple Leafs
Vancouver Canucks
Winnipeg Jets
Like everything else, this new alignment is not official at this point. The league has still not released any finalized plan for the upcoming season, though there is a call today with the board of governors that will hopefully move things along. This new format would cut down on travel as much as possible while still maintaining some of the biggest rivalries around the sport.
Not for Dallas, good grief.
Or St. Louis for that matter.
To be fair, Dallas never has an easy schedule in terms of travel. The nice thing is that they can hit Vegas to Arizona to Anaheim to LA to SJ fairly quickly.
You would think that st.louis chicago rivalry would be a big tv draw. Guess not. Looks like st.louis is gonna spend alot of time away from st.louis. kind of getting the shaft. Also tampa bay may have 130 points in a full schedule in that realignment
Define quickly. Also they will be playing games in three different times zones regularly. Will suck for TV rating as majority of road games will not start until 9:30 CST.
Tampa is gonna be on god mode going into playoffs
…with a regular season record of 45 – 3. I agree, they are going to trash that division.
That Vegas division. Talk about the swamp.
That first division listed is going to be brutal! Philly, Pitt, Wash, BOS, NYI, NYR all in the same division? Yikes!
Honestly no reason to revert after the season
Cant have east and west coast time zones for the Canadian division
That’s my question. What does this mean for travel? They won’t play the whole season in a bubble…so the only teams travelling from coast to coast are the Canadian teams?
I like this better:
Boston Bruins
New Jersey Devils
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia Flyers
Washington Capitals
Buffalo Sabres
Columbus Blue Jackets
Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit Red Wings
Minnesota Wild
Pittsburgh Penguins
Carolina Hurricanes
Dallas Stars
Florida Panthers
Nashville Predators
St Louis Blues
Tampa Bay Lightning
Anaheim Ducks
Arizona Coyotes
Colorado Avalanche
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
Vegas Golden Knights
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
Montreal Canadiens
Ottawa Senators
Toronto Maple Leafs
Vancouver Canucks
Winnipeg Jets
Not sure why you’d need to make a 5th division? Makes no sense
Because he wants to give his team a chance for once
Instead Centraleast with Detroit,Nashville and Columbus,Midwest Dallas and St. Louis and Florida with its 2 Teams. Carolina with Washington,Flyers and Pittsburgh. Boston with New York Teams.
Agreed
Switch Pittsburgh with Carolina, then switch St. Louis with Minnesota.
Fixed It
don’t forget seattle comes in too
Not this season
A lot of cross country trips for Canadien teams Toronto Montreal and Ottawa back & forth to the west coast? Vise verse!
That Northeast division…. Mother of God….
A lot of rough travel schedules ahead for every division except the 1st one. that east coast and west coast divisions will be black and blue for sure.