NHL 2011/2012 Season

Major realignment coming as soon as next season.

NHL approves radical realignment plan
ESPN.com news services

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- NHL officials approved a radical realignment plan Monday that will give the league four conferences instead of six divisions and guarantee home-and-home series among all teams.

The Board of Governors authorized commissioner Gary Bettman to implement the proposal pending input from the NHL Players' Association. It could be put in place as early as next season.

A New Look

Here is the four-conference format approved by the NHL board of governors Monday night. Under the realigned format, which still needs to be officially implemented by commissioner Gary Bettman, every team would play every other club in a home-and-home matchup:
Conference "A"
Anaheim
Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver
Conference "B"
Chicago
Columbus
Dallas
Detroit
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg
Conference "C"
Boston
Buffalo
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto
Conference "D"
Carolina
New Jersey
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

The league considered two plans to accommodate Atlanta's move to Winnipeg this past summer. The first would have simply moved the Jets to the Central Division and either Detroit or Columbus to the Southeast.

"The simple one wasn't as simple as it looked when you got done with it," Bettman said.

The board opted to go with the more dramatic switch, creating four geographic conferences -- two with eight teams and two with seven.

The new format will increase overall travel in the regular season, especially for Eastern Conference teams who will now have more trips West. But it cuts down on travel for some Western Conference teams, which was a critical issue for teams like Detroit, Dallas, Columbus and Nashville.

"This is not a subject that everybody is going to get their first choice on," Bettman said. "What you try to do is come up with something that everybody can live with, get comfortable with and understands the value of. Because if you ask 30 clubs, you'd probably get 30 different solutions. That's what makes this a difficult process."

The new look has two conferences with seven teams all based in the Eastern time zone: New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington and Carolina in one and Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, Florida and Tampa Bay in the other.

The third conference consists of eight teams in the Eastern and Central time zones: Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg. The fourth conference has eight teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones: Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado.

The conferences have not been named.

"The chance to stay in our time zone the chance to play two Original Six teams lots (Chicago and Detroit) and other very good teams in that conference and the chance to have every team in the league come into our building every year I think is a real positive," said Mark Chipman, chairman and governor of the Jets.

Teams will play home-and-home series against all nonconference teams and five or six games in their conference. The top four teams in each conference will make the playoffs, with the first two rounds consisting of solely intraconference matchups. Bettman said he will consult with general managers in the spring before deciding whether to reseed the playoffs in the third round or to have pre-determined matchups.

Bettman said he liked the current format that he devised of six five-team divisions but that Winnipeg's move from Atlanta forced some change. He didn't take a stance on either proposal, but simply explained the pros and cons and allowed the teams to vote.

There was about an hour of discussion, and representatives from about a dozen teams spoke before the plan was approved.

"We had clubs, a number of clubs, that were unhappy with the current state of affairs," Bettman said. "In the context of having to make a change anyway, I felt it was important that their needs and concerns were recognized."

Chipman added there was no acrimony in the discussion that led up to the change.

"I think it was a matter of everybody trying to make their points but I got the sense that people were acting in the best interests of the league and there was a compelling argument that what was agreed to today was in the best interests of everybody," Chipman said. "You can't satisfy everybody, everybody knew that going in."

Among the teams pleased with the new alignment plan were the Penguins, whose fears of being separated from cross-state rival Philadelphia were allayed with the radical shift.

"It was important to us to stay with long-time rivals. Not just Philly. And I think it was important to us to make sure we maintained the rivalries that we developed over the years and they're very good rivalries and our fans love to hate some of the teams we play against. I'm sure their fans love to hate us too. So we're encouraged by that," team CEO and president David Morehouse said Monday.

"In the end I think this will be a good thing for the league," he said.

Information from ESPN.com's Scott Burnside and The Associated Press contributed to this report.