Re-working the NHL

[mcrosby]

Living here in Wisconsin I have developed a dislike for the placement of NHL teams in the south. Many of these markets are not meant for hockey, and have trouble staying afloat (Nashville, Phoenix). I set up a re-alignment of the NHL that moves teams to former areas, all of which have an actual interest in hockey. Some areas are a bit condensed with teams, but all have the fan support for more than 1 team...we know how dey love der hockey in Canada eh!

Anyways, here is the realignment, with new teams in bold.

New Jersey

Pittsburgh

Philadelphia

Washington

Columbus

Detroit

Chicago

Minnesota

Milwaukee

Winnipeg

Atlanta

Colorado

Dallas

Los Angeles

St. Louis

New York

Buffalo

Toronto

Hamilton

Quebec

Vancouver

Calgary

Seattle

Edmonton

California

New York

Montreal

Hartford

Boston

Ottowa

Along with this re-alignment I have made concepts for each of the new teams and will be posting them from time to time. I would LOVE for some C&C for each.

First up, the Quebec Nordiques.

Now that you're done celebrating their return, the Nordiques keep their old logos. I was going to try to come in with something new, but the old is just so classic. So I stuck with the old, with a few tweaks, nothing major. The unis are a bit different, meant to stay somewhat simple.

After Quebec has been properly criticized and whatnot the California Seals make a return-replacing Anaheim and San Jose in one swipe.

[officeglenn]

I don't know about this one. I dig the striping from the collars down the sides, but the half fleurs-de-lis don't really work for me.

I'd also like to see the full-on red Nordiques logo back, especially on the blue jersey ? the blue logo gets completely lost against the blue background.

The sleeves need something ? anything ? too. They look awfully bare with just the numbers and the thin stripes at the cuffs. Maybe some striping mid-arm that mirrors the pattern going down the sides?

[Shane Does Art]

I'm not a fan of the realignment.

You took Ottawa and Montreal out of a division with the leafs and replaced them with New York and Quebec? If Quebec is in there why take out Montreal? Same with New York and Ottawa. You take The Rangers (I assume) out of a division with the Devils and put them in with a bunch of random teams from the Northeast.

Then you go from Atlanta to Los Angeles all in one division, which makes no sense.

Now the jersey is alright, but like Officeglenn said, the half fleurs-de-lis seem sort of awkward. I would add something to the sleeves too.

[mcrosby]

I will re-work the re-alignment later. The major point of this was to get teams out of the south and back into the north/Canada. Shanurr, if you would like to take a stab at re-aligning be my guest. In the mean team I'll be working on the critiques you've given me thus far.

[bigcoyotes]

You can't take San Jose away thats ridiculous on so many levels

[elliott]

I'm not a fan of the realignment.

You took Ottawa and Montreal out of a division with the leafs and replaced them with New York and Quebec? If Quebec is in there why take out Montreal? Same with New York and Ottawa. You take The Rangers (I assume) out of a division with the Devils and put them in with a bunch of random teams from the Northeast.

Then you go from Atlanta to Los Angeles all in one division, which makes no sense.

Now the jersey is alright, but like Officeglenn said, the half fleurs-de-lis seem sort of awkward. I would add something to the sleeves too.

I agree here. Atlanta to LA is a ridiculous travel expectation. That division needs work, it's just really spread out. And yeah, I wouldn't mess too much with the 2 divisions with canadian teams. They seem to work well and have good rivalries.

You can't take San Jose away thats ridiculous on so many levels

While this is obviously a homer-based remark, it does have some truth. They are a successful franchise and it's hard to get rid of that source of attendance.

[mcrosby]

Here's an update of Quebec. I kept the half fleur-de-lis because I think they look better with the added sleeve stripes. If you all disagree I can change it.

And to add to things here are the California Seals. The idea is to replace the Sharks and the Ducks with this team. California is just too darn warm for that much hockey.

I kept the old colors, and name obviously. The font is that of the Ducks. The template is a modified All-Star template. C&C please.

next up-Hartford Whalers

[AlexHorky]

Ok, I really don't get a lot of what's going on with your realignment/contraction. The two New York teams moved out of a division with tri-state rivals New Jersey and Philly. If Quebec comes back, they've gotta be with Montreal and Ottawa, no way around it. Come on, Atlanta and Los Angeles in the same division? And really, yes, its warm in California, but San Jose and Anaheim are sold out most nights. Hamilton and Hartford, despite their northern climate, are just not big enough to accommodate the attendance/ticket price needs of an NHL team and the private boxes that would need to be filled, since the NHL is a gate-driven league and teams don't get a lot of support from TV contracts like the NFL or NBA. Also, Tampa Bay is a fine market, once again in spite of its geographical location, but the fans are currently a little put off with the way ownership runs things.

How's about this:

New York

Long Island

New Jersey

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Boston

Ottawa

Montreal

Quebec

Buffalo

Kansas City

Tampa

Columbus

Washington

Carolina

Detroit

Chicago

St. Louis

Toronto

Minnesota

Seattle

Vancouver

Calgary

Edmonton

Colorado

San Jose

Anaheim

Houston

Dallas

Los Angeles

Most of it makes geographical sense, except the third division, which I guess COULD be called the Southern Division, the problem is Kansas City. It could be in St. Louis' spot but the Blues NEED to be in the same division as Detroit and Chicago for the purposes of ticket revenue. No offence to Steeltown or Winnipeg but I don't think the support would be there. Maybe in Winnipeg because they lost it once and they would be scared of losing it again, but Winnipeg did lose its team because of a lack of support, remember, the Jets were on average 2500 tickets unsold every game from 1990 onward. Hamilton had three AHL or OHL failed teams before the Bulldogs came about and the Bulldogs have surpassed 2,000,000 in attendance....in 13 seasons...over 520 home games...roughly a 4000 person attendance. The Marlies do that well at the gate and theyre very disrespected her in Toronto.

[aci]

With those locations, doing an alignment is going to be a pain no matter how you do it. I think this would be better, though. Note that I didn't use a map, which would have probably made this a tad easier. It'll suck to be in the Southeast division no matter how you work it, I think.

Southeast

Atlanta

Colorado

Washington

St Louis

Dallas

Northeast

Boston

Montreal

Quebec

Ottawa

Hartford

Atlantic

Philadelphia

New York

Pittsburgh

New Jersey

New York

Central

Toronto

Hamilton

Buffalo

Detroit

Columbus

Pacific

Los Angeles

California

Seattle

Vancouver

Calgary

Northwest

Edmonton

Winnipeg

Milwaukee

Chicago

Minnesota

[conundrum_2]

Hmmm. my thoughts to Re-alignments.... with complete respects to our Western franchises and their travel costs.

Mind you, though, this would have a tremendously diffciult time getting accepted by the BoG's... but hey let's put the idea out there anyway. Make it similar to MLB, with two conferences but have both conferences have an equal spread of teams so that their travel costs are all about the same. No more of this Eastern time zone heavy league with their bus travels to the next game, meanwile West coast teams are air-travel heavy coming through the time-zones.

10 Eastern teams all in close proximity to each other in one conference? Not anymore. Now there's 5 teams each in TWO conferences. 10 teams in the Pacific Time zone right now? Nope. Now just five teams each in TWO conferences. The remaining Central time zone teams get split evenly into the two conferences.

It'd give teams that couldn't possibly have a chance (as the Conferences are split now) have the possibility of meeting in the Finals for the cup .... imagine the Rangers and Islanders cup finals (okay, it's a huuuuuuge stretch). Or how about a West coast final? Vancouver vs Edmonton? Anaheim vs. LA? Or how about: Ottawa vs Toronto? Ottawa vs. Montreal? Buffalo vs. Toronto? Hmmm....

I, at least think this idea merits a teeny tiny consideration. Whatcha think?

[Shane Does Art]

Jesus. A map would have helped you.

Colorado is closer west than some teams you have in the western side of it.