Proposal: Expansion to 36 Teams

[McGarnagle]

20 team NHL with Promotion/Relegation to AHL and ECHL in a 3-tiered system. Play every team 4 times in a round robin format, top 8 make the playoffs.

Calder Cup winner joins the NHL the next year, last place finisher goes down to AHL. 2nd to last NHL team plays Calder Cup runner-up and the winner of that gets a spot in the NHL.

 

[Lobster57]

I like 4 divisions but as a Habs fan we have to be in the same one as you

Play the other 3 teams in your division 6 times = 18 games
Play the other 3 divisions in your conference 4 times = 48
Play the other conference once = 16 games
Season is still 82 games

that works better, it's considerably more straight-forward. And yes, Bruins and Habs in the same division in the only most-have in any realignment

 

[dafoomie]

I can solve this problem without expansion. 8 divisions of 4, assuming Phoenix moves to Quebec since we're just BSing anyway, and italics could be switched around. Play your division teams 8 times each, non division teams twice each, 80 games. Other two games can rotate.

Boston	Toronto	Rangers	Philadelphia	Edmonton	Chicago	Anaheim	Winnipeg
Montreal	Buffalo	Islanders	Pittsburgh	Calgary	St. Louis	San Jose	Minnesota
Quebec	Ottawa	Devils	Washington	Vancouver	Nashville	LA	Dallas
Tampa	Detroit	Carolina	Florida	Seattle	Columbus	Vegas	Colorado

Maybe you can put Carolina where Tampa is, put Washington with the NY teams and have Florida and Tampa together with Philly and Pittsburgh but do they care?

 

[BostonBob]

Who is O'Brien?

 

[missingchicklet]

Should stick to 32 teams/82 games but go back to more games against divisional opponents:

-6 games against each of the 7 in-division teams = 42 games
-3 games against each of the other 8 in-conference teams = 24 games
-1 game against each of the 16 out-of-conference teams = 16 games (rotate Home/Away every other season)

I want teams to hate each other again. 36 teams would just lead to a more watered-down product.

It'll never happen due to the direction the NHL is trying to promote the league, but it's pretty much in line with what I would like to see in a perfect world. No way the NHL will reduce the number of season games, so with 32 teams your proposal allows for much better inter-divisional rivalries to develop. It still gives a reasonable amount of inter-conference games against the opposing division as well.

I simply don't give a rat's rear end about playing the opposing conference teams 2 times each. Once is enough. It's much more interesting to see more games against division opponents. Having the Habs, for example, only visit Boston once this season is criminal. The vast majority of playoff games are going to be against your own conference. There's not much point in playing so many games against the other conference when it detracts so heavily from the number of times a team plays teams from its own division.

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

20 team NHL with Promotion/Relegation to AHL and ECHL in a 3-tiered system. Play every team 4 times in a round robin format, top 8 make the playoffs.

Calder Cup winner joins the NHL the next year, last place finisher goes down to AHL. 2nd to last NHL team plays Calder Cup runner-up and the winner of that gets a spot in the NHL.

Not to sound like a certain…defender of minor league hockey in Maine but…the AHL franchises are affiliated - if not owned - by the NHL franchises. This is literally unpossible.

 

[mikelvl]

I would have named it after Al Sims myself.....lol

 

[Crash Bandicoot]

More international teams should come on board. Canada doesn't count in my definition of international.

 

[Patdud]

No, no more expansion.

Just realign to make the divisions make more sense. you can give them old names too if you get randy for nostalgia . Keep division playoffs if that's what you want but no more wildcard, make it an actual division playoff. Either that or go to a 1/2 ->Straight seed for the conference. Conference winner is 1 seed (they play 8th), 2nd Division winner is 2 seed (they play 7th), everyone else is straight seeding 3-8 and you keep the 3v6, 4v5 set up.

If you looked at it today with current set up you get
BOS - PITT
CAR - NYI
NJD - TPA
TOR - NYR

LVG - WIN
DAL - SEA
LAK - COL
MIN - EDM

keep 82 games, go to 6 against your 7 division teams = 42 games
3 against inter division conference games = 24 games
1 home game against inter conference division A teams = 8 games
1 away game against inter conference division B teams = 8 games

42+24+8+8=82

Prince of Wales Conference:
Adams Division
Boston
Montreal
Toronto
Ottawa
Buffalo
NYR
NYI
NJD

Patrick Division
Philly
Pittsburgh
Columbus
Nashville
Washington
Carolina
Tampa
Florida

Campbell Conference
Norris Division
Detroit
Chicago
St Louis
Minnesota
Winnipeg
Colorado
Dallas
Arizona

Smythe Division
Edmonton
Calgary
Vancouver
Seattle
San Jose
LAK
Anaheim
Las Vegas

 

[Number8]

I could pretty much agree to anything if it included getting rid of Arizona/Phoenix - or whatever they want to be called these days. What a total and complete embarrassment to the League.

- Playing in a glorified community rink.
- $35M in active player salary cap
- $12M in dead cap (players now with other teams).
- Another $15M in essentially dead space with Weber (37), Ladd (37), and Little (35) on IR.
- Fielding a team this year that is $15M under Cap limit.
- Missed playoffs in 10 of the last 11 seasons. This season will make it 11 of 12.
- Not even ranked in top 5 in NHL teams in terms of prospects.
- Built up a bunch of 2 and 3rd round picks - but only this year do they have more than one 1st rounder.

When is Gary Bettman going to accept this was an experiment gone wrong with just a seemingly endless amount of drama? Now they are not even trying.

Shitcan that franchise if you ask me.