Here's a quick attempt at a realignment/schedule proposal. It's certainly not perfect, but I tried to balance travel/time zone considerations with regional or traditional rivalries, and keeping in mind my belief that every team should play in every city, every season. This was done fairly quickly whilst at work, so if some of the scheduling math doesn't work, I apologize in advance. Here goes:
Division 1:
VAN, CGY, EDM, WPG, LA, SJ, ANA, PHX
Division 2:
CHI, STL, COL, DAL, CBJ, MIN, NSH
Division 3:
TOR, MTL, OTT, BOS, BUF, PITS, PHI, DET
Division 4:
NYR, NYI, NJ, WSH, CAR, TB, FLA
Schedule (Here's where it got a little more complicated than I would have liked)
Division 1:
plays 5 games vs division opponents (35 games)
plays every other team home and away (44 games)
VAN, EDM, CGY, WPG play OTT, TOR, MTL an additional time = 82
LA, SJ, ANA, PHX play eachother once more = 82
Division 2:
Play division opponents 6 times = 36
Play every other team home and away = 46 (total:82)
Division 3:
Play division opponents 4 times = 28
Play every other team x 2 = 44
TOR, MTL, OTT play VAN, CGY, EDM, WPG
TOR, MTL, OTT play each other 3 additional times
BOS, BUF, PITS, PHI, DET play each other twice more
BOS, BUF and DET play an additional game vs each other
PITS, PHI play twice more
Division 4:
Same format as Division 2.
OK, flame away!