I liked these divisions better, tbh, and with everybody playing everybody it would be great. But alas, there are some rivalries that will return, which is great, and some that are leaving us again (Chicago-Detroit), which is not-so great.
I just hope they keep the divisional format and final four playoff system. I much prefer that...it gives us rivalries early in the playoffs, and a wide-open possibility for the final four. I love it.
Oh, and I truly believe Carolina, Nashville, Tampa Bay and Florida should all be in the same division all the time, regardless. Unfortunately, they are scattered all over two conferences now.
Agree on the divisional playoff format sans wild cards, assuming they re-balance the schedule in favour of division rivalries exclusively (would suck for Arizona, though).
With all the talk of expanding the playoffs (I know Bettman denies it, but still), here is what I would do:
76-game regular season (4 games vs Division rivals, 2 games vs everyone else)
After the regular season wraps, the top 3 teams in each Division clinch playoff spots and play a 6-game round robin (3 games vs each other team) that is treated as additional regular season games that add on to their point totals, unless they end up tied, in which case the head-to-head results of these 6 games break the ties.
While this happens, the #4 and #5 seeds in each Division play a best-of-7 play-in series under playoff rules, and the winner faces the team that lands in the #1 slot after the round robin.
Regular playoffs proceed from this point, so even though technically 20 teams "make the playoffs", most only play in the regular 16-team tournament, while the period leading up to the playoffs is full of exciting, high-stakes, rivalry-building games no matter what (this play-in series + round robin structure also allows for approximately 82 games to still be played before the proper playoffs start for all the teams except #6-8 in each division).