NHL Realignment Project – Week 46

2012/04/22 by tom

Olé… Olé, Olé, Olé!

Listen up all you hooligans out there. This week we’re doing something that ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NEVER WOULD HAPPEN in the NHL (or NBA, NFL, MLB or pretty much any other North American professional sports league). We are instituting a system of relegation and promotion… just like in most of the global soccer leagues out there.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this (very normal everywhere else) system, the premise is simple: There are multiple “league levels” of the sport in question, then at the end of each season, a certain number of teams from each league level either drop to the next level down (relegation) or move up to the next level up (promotion) based on standings (or the “table” if you wanted to go with the established vernacular).

To set up our fictitious NHL, we are take the 30 teams of the NHL and the 30 teams of the AHL and combine them into our system. Using the records at the end of the 2011-12 campaigns, we take the top 20 teams of the NHL and create our “Premier League”. The other 10 NHL teams joint the 10 best AHL teams to make up the “Alpha League”. The remaining 20 AHL teams make up the “Beta League”.

Now that our leagues are set up, we put in place our promotion/relegation rules moving forward. At the end of every regular season, the bottom for teams of the Premier League drop down to the Alpha League, with a corresponding promotion of the top four teams in the Alpha League to the Premier League. Same goes for the bottom of the Alpha and the top of the Beta. Simple, right?

Simple in theory, almost impossible to map. It took me for-friggin-ever to put this one together. Hence the lateness of this post (I’m a full week behind on my “weekly” update to the NHLRP now). Let’s look at the insanity:

The Map

The Breakdown:

60-team “super league” broken down into three 20-team hockey leagues — NHL Premier, NHL Alpha, NHL Beta. At the end of each regular season, the bottom 4 teams in Premier and Alpha are relegated to the next league below (Alpha and Beta, respectively). Conversely, the top 4 teams in Alpha and Beta are promoted to the next league above (Premier and Alpha, respectively). Playoffs happen for the top 16 teams in the Premier League (Stanley Cup) and the top 16 in the Alpha league (Calder Cup). Playoff results do not affect promotion positioning/status. Promotion is based purely regular season records. NHL Beta has no Cup-style knock-out playoffs.

NHL Premier Team Former League Boston Bruins NHL Buffalo Sabres NHL Calgary Flames NHL Chicago Blackhawks NHL Colorado Avalanche NHL Dallas Stars NHL Detroit Red Wings NHL Florida Panthers NHL Los Angeles Kings NHL Nashville Predators NHL New Jersey Devils NHL New York Rangers NHL Ottawa Senators NHL Philadelphia Flyers NHL Phoenix Coyotes NHL Pittsburgh Penguins NHL St. Louis Blues NHL San Jose Sharks NHL Vancouver Canucks NHL Washington Capitals NHL

NHL Alpha Team Former League Abbottsford Heat AHL Anaheim Ducks NHL Bridgeport Sound Tigers AHL Carolina Hurricanes NHL Chicago Wolves AHL Columbus Blue Jackets NHL Edmonton Oilers NHL Hershey Bears AHL Milwaukee Admirals AHL Minnesota Wild NHL Montreal Canadiens NHL New York Islanders NHL Norfolk Admirals AHL Oklahoma City Barons AHL St. John’s Ice Caps AHL Tampa Bay Lightning NHL Toronto Marlies AHL Toronto Maple Leafs NHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL Winnipeg Jets NHL

NHL Beta Team Former League Adirondack Phantoms AHL Albany Devils AHL Binghamton Senators AHL Charlotte Checkers AHL Connecticut Whale AHL Grand Rapids Griffins AHL Hamilton Bulldogs AHL Houston Aeros AHL Lake Erie Monsters AHL Manchester Monarchs AHL Peoria Rivermen AHL Portland Pirates AHL Providence Bruins AHL Rochester Americans AHL Rockford IceHogs AHL San Antonio Rampage AHL Springfield Falcons AHL Syracuse Crunch AHL Texas Stars AHL Worcester Sharks AHL

Gained teams:

Every AHL city is now considered part of the NHL.

Lost teams: Technically, no one. But the 10 current NHL markets that will now host NHL Alpha teams are: Anaheim, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Columbus, Long Island, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Carolina.

The Benefits:

• Opportunity — Teams in smaller markets with no hope of ever attracting an NHL team (either through relocation or expansion) would, in theory be able to earn their way up the food chain and get a shot at the Stanley Cup. • Opportunity II — Cities that could probably do well with and NHL team (Seattle, Portland, Quebec City, Hamilton, Kansas City, Hartford, Las Vegas, Salt Lake) could find it easier to lure a team to there cities… by competing to convince Beta teams to relocate to their cities/arenas instead of jumping straight into the NHL (or Premier League, as it were). Once a team was in place, then the task would be to move up to Alpha and eventually Premier. • Fan protection — Speaking of relocation… I’d ban any Premier or Alpha team from relocating to another city. If you’re good enough to be in the two most elite divisions, your fans deserve to know that their team won’t be stolen from them and moved to another city. Owners/GMs that engineered choke jobs to drive a team down into the Beta League just to relocate, would lose so much money in the process, it’d probably not be worth it. • Regular season awesomeness — Since promotion and relegation are based on regular season standings, not on playoff performance, the regular season has a whole hell of a lot of importance… top to bottom. Maybe this is the way to make the regular season as exciting as the regular season is in College Football. Scheduling: Each team plays every other team twice at home and twice on the road: 4 games x 19 teams = 76 games

Playoffs (Premier and Alpha): • Top 16 teams qualify. • 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, 3 vs 14, etc. • reseed after every round • Premier League champion earns Stanley Cup • Alpha League champion earns Calder Cup • Since promotion is a regular season reward Acknowledgements: Just to reiterate: this will never, can never, should never happen. This was just for fun. As a fan of Brazilian Soccer (Galo!) I’ve often wondered how relegation might look in a North American league. Some of the major issues here are: – The AHL and NHL teams have affiliations with each other and often, the same owners. – The NHL Draft would be a cluster if 60 teams were involved, I’m guessing. – Travel would be a nightmare during the playoffs if geography was not part of the equation. – Rivalries are the lifeblood of the league. This effectively kills them. As always, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to use the sharing buttons to spread the word. —Tom