The NHL might need to go back to Atlanta because of the travel gap.
*truncating for space purposes
At this point, Atlanta would be a smegging disaster. They have no ownership group, no arena, and without those two being stable and solid, no hope of developing a fan base. If you're going to a 34 team league (and I think we're on our way there, in the long run) then you're probably not getting Atlanta in the east yet.
Presuming you go for the 6/6/5 - 6/6/5 split, instead of 9/8 - 9/8, a tight geographic configuration would recreate the division of death, with WAS/CAR/TB/FLA/random sacrifice, which is terrible for ratings and ticket sales.
What you may want in the East, to avoid that, is to add Quebec, and continue to keep WAS/CAR and TB/FLA separated, something like this:
MTL/QUE/BOS/TOR/BUF/OTT
WAS/CAR/DET/CBJ/PIT/PHI
TB/FLA/NYR/NYI/NJ
I know, separating Philly from NJ/NYR/NYI will never happen, but there's a logical link between the six teams I put together, plus a division consisting of Tampa, Miami, and greater NYC is actually pretty solid for travel, since all the divisional games are pretty tightly packed together.
Trouble is, the West would be a disaster. It's safe to assume that 34 teams currently would involve adding Seattle and Houston, and leaving everyone in place. If Arizona has to move, it'd either be to Portland for a song, or KC, probably also for a song. Either way, though, the time zone distribution of teams is awful.
PTZ: VGK/LA/ANA/SJ/VAN/SEA
Hybrid: ARZ
MTZ: EDM/CGY/COL
CTZ:CHI/NSH/DAL/STL/MIN/WPG/HOU
You have to split off one or two of the CTZ teams into a different division, and if you want to control for travel/TV times, it has to be two. Those two then have to be paired with the MTZ teams... but then they have Arizona swinging back into the PTZ, which is a problem.
VGK/LA/ANA/SJ/VAN/SEA
ARZ/EDM/CGY/COL/MIN/WPG
CHI/NSH/DAL/HOU/STL
Putting Arizona with the PTZ teams forces a full-time PTZ team into a division with at least one CTZ team, which is also awful for TV times. Portland, by the by, doesn't help this much; the only thing that helps is moving Arizona to either the CTZ or a full-time MTZ city.
Then you get something like this:
VGK/LA/ANA/SJ/VAN/SEA
EDM/CGY/COL/MIN/WPG
CHI/NSH/STL/KC/DAL/HOU
That's very compact and clean.