I've come up with a few simple ideas for re-alignment for the NHL, to keep things fair for teams in the U.S. and Canada.
1st, I wouldn't have the NHL expand to 32 teams without Quebec City in the equation. If QUE can't get in, then Las Vegas waits too. No preferential treatment can be given to Vegas ahead of Quebec.
My alignment for the teams, with 4 divisions, goes like this.
4-DIVISION ALIGNMENT
Eastern Conference
Division 1
Quebec Nordiques
Montreal Canadiens
Boston Bruins
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
Washington Capitals
Division 2
Ottawa Senators
Toronto Maple Leafs
Carolina Hurricanes
Florida Panthers
Buffalo Sabres
Pittsburgh Penguins
Tampa Bay Lightning
Columbus Blue Jackets
Western Conference
Division 3
Winnipeg Jets
Edmonton Oilers
Detroit Red Wings
Nashville Predators
Chicago Blackhawks
St. Louis Blues
Minnesota Wild
Dallas Stars
Division 4
Calgary Flames
Vancouver Canucks
Colorado Avalanche
Arizona Coyotes
Las Vegas
Anaheim Ducks
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
In this format, to make the playoffs, I'd qualify teams based on division, where you'd need to finish in the Top 4 within to make the playoffs. No wild-cards or crossovers. The 1st Round would return to the Division Semi-Final format used up to 1992-93, with Round 2 being the Division Final round. The matchups would be 1V4 and 2V3 in the DSF round.
Now, if there were to be 8 divisions, I'd place the teams like this.
8-DIVISION ALIGNMENT
Eastern Conference
Division 1
Quebec Nordiques
Boston Bruins
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Division 2
Montreal Canadiens
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
Washington Capitals
Division 3
Ottawa Senators
Carolina Hurricanes
Florida Panthers
Buffalo Sabres
Division 4
Toronto Maple Leafs
Pittsburgh Penguins
Tampa Bay Lightning
Columbus Blue Jackets
Western Conference
Division 5
Winnipeg Jets
Detroit Red Wings
Nashville Predators
Chicago Blackhawks
Division 6
Edmonton Oilers
St. Louis Blues
Minnesota Wild
Dallas Stars
Division 7
Calgary Flames
Colorado Avalanche
Arizona Coyotes
Las Vegas
Division 8
Vancouver Canucks
Anaheim Ducks
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
In this format, to make the playoffs, you must finish in 1st or 2nd place in your division. There are no divisional crossovers. The 1st round is the Division Final round, with Round 2 being the Conf. Semi Final round.
In the CSF round, I'd have the team from the best division in the conference play the team from the worst division, and the other 2 would play each other.
The best division would be the one who's 2 teams, with their reg. season points totals added up, would give it the rank of 1st place division(i.e. From Div. 7, Calgary gets 119 points, and Arizona got 100 points, both teams got 219 points, while the 2 teams from Div. 5 got 174, Div. 6 got 185, and Div. 8 got 192). In the brackets, it'd mean the winner of Div. 7 would play winner of Div. 5 in the CSF, while the Div. 6 winner would play the Div. 8 winner.
To accommodate the 8-division format, in order to cut down on travel lag and costs, I'd END all play between each conference in the regular season, meaning the Canucks would not play the Canadiens in the reg. season anymore.
To help keep the TOR-DET rivalry alive as best possible, I would have Detroit and Columbus switch conferences each season, meaning the Leafs and Wings would play each other in the reg. season every other year.
This would mean that the Prince Of Wales Trophy and Clarence Campbell Bowl would have their significance rise greatly, and I'd also have the Eastern and Western Conference winners hoist those trophies, to celebrate the fact that they were the 'Beasts of the East/Best In The West', and to have those conference titles mean as much as the ones from the NFL do to their winners. If both teams hoist those trophies, THERE IS NO CUP FINAL HEX/CURSE!
The Stanley Cup Championship Final series would see both teams flying blind against each other, with no current season past to speak of weighing them down.
My preference would be the 8-division format.
I'd also suggest that the rosters for every team in the NHL be re-distributed as well, to provide for proper roster balance through the whole league. Each team would have a player that would be as good as the others in their respective roster positions league-wide. It would mean that the playoff races post-trade deadline would be as even as possible.
It would help to address an issue that the teams in Canada can't make any decent playoff runs that are seen as deliberate. Most of the playoff runs that Canadian teams have made since 1994 have probably been seen as accidents that weren't supposed to exist.
Sorry this was so long, but I needed to explain this in detail.