The only scenario where it may be considered is if the situation in Arizona was fixed and the NHL was willing to expand to Houston in a situation where houston was thought of so highly by the league , that they thought a 1 team expansion only was worth it. A 33 team leave would likely best be divided into 3 11 team conferences where you play in conference teams 4 time and the other teams twice. That would give 84 (10*4 +11*2 +11*2) games. When seattle joins, i believe 84 games in the likely schedule they will agree upon in the new 32 team league as you will have 84 (7*4 +8*3 +16*2) games as well. I would think this will be discussed in the next round of CBA negotiations. Thus in theory, you could expand from 32 to 33 by simply changing the alignment.
Below would be how I would break it down. Playoff format to be determined.
Patrick-Adams: Ottawa/Montreal/Boston/Buffalo/Carolina/Washington/Philadelphia/Pittsburgh/New jersey/NY Islanders/NY Rangers
Norris-Tampa/Florida/Nashville/Dallas/Houston/Columbus/Detroit/Chicago/St. Louis/Toronto/Minnesota
Smythe-Winnipeg/Calgary/Edmonton/Vancouver/Seattle/Colorado/Las Vegas/San Jose/Arizona/Anaheim/Los Angeles
I know this works badly for Winnipeg but i couldn't align in a way where i could please all 33 teams.
Playing 84 games will not be accepted very easily by the players.
Current sched martix:
East: it's perfect 4,3,2.....Yes. 28+24+30
But in the west, it's a mess:
Central: 2 vs East = 32. 3 vs Pacific = 24. That leaves 26 games in the division. It's a combination of 4 and 5 games against these teams.
Pacific: 2 vs East = 32. vs Central = 21. That leaves 29 games in division. 4 versus everyone with one extra game.
Thus, there is precedent for such scheduling.
There are 2 possibilities for a 32 team sched:
1- home/away versus everyone and all other games in the division. That would be 34 games in the division, and thus it would be 5 games vs 6 teams, and 4 versus the other one. This possibility would be best if they do 2 rounds of straight divisional playoffs.
2 - 4 versus division, 2 vs other conference. Thus equals 28 + 32 or 60 games. That leaves 22 games, and 8 teams in the other division. So, either you have 3 games vs 6 teams and 2 games vs 2 teams. Or, you make 3 versus all, and take away 2 divisional games. In this setup, the wild card stays.