How would you change the look of the NHL divisional format?

The league has made it clear that the Winnipeg Jets will no longer play in the East next year and will move west, most likely to the now Central division. This opening in the East has caused quite a stir in the West with teams like Columbus, Nashville and Detroit desperately trying to get their foot in the Eastern time zone. There have been rumors that the league is only doing a direct trade with Winnipeg and Detroit only trading places. This generates the fewest changes, but many teams would be left complaining.

Dallas and Minnesota want to get out of their current divisions, while Detroit simply wouldn’t fit into a division with Florida and Tampa Bay. There is an opportunity for a drastic change in the league that could be beneficial in the long run, one much like what Bob McKenzie referred to as “Plan G” for leagues.

Here’s what we thought: Because there are too many eastern time zone teams in a 30 league, a 4 division format would work better. Group the computers by time zone as best you can, as follows:

Pacific: Colorado, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Phoenix.

Center: Winnipeg, Dallas, Minnesota, St. Louis, Columbus, Nashville, Chicago.

Northeast: Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo, Carolina, Boston, Detroit, Ottawa.

Atlantic/Southeast: NY Rangers, NY Islanders, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, Tampa Bay, Florida.

Games would be primarily intra-division based, so the league would have to revert to the old playoff format of the top seed in each division playing the fourth seed and the second seed playing the third seed in the first round of the playoffs. One of the leagues’ strongest marketing angles is the great rivalries they have, so a divisional format for the first two rounds of the playoffs can’t hurt. People will be quick to point out that having only 7 teams in some divisions would be unfair as only 3 teams would miss the playoffs compared to 4 in 8-team divisions, but there could be some sort of crossover option where if the 5th team place in the 8-team division has more points than the 4th-place team in the 7-team division could compete in the playoffs by eliminating that 4th-place team.

There are many options on the table, and no one option seems to work for everyone, so what do you think? How should the league change its divisional format for the 2012-13 season?