First, I want to know what we are trying to fix with realignment? I don't really have a problem with the current alignment as it seems fair.
However, I did a quick study of the distances from each city. According to google maps, if each team drove one way to all 19 other cities, the travel from most to least is as follows (in total minutes traveled):
SSM 7636
OTT 6559
SAG 5846
SBY 5754
ER 5541
KGN 5538
NB 5288
WSR 4971
FLT 4865
OS 4376
SAR 4159
PBO 4079
OSH 3705
LDN 3640
NIA 3624
BAR 3523
KIT 3344
GUE 3204
HAM 3163
MIS 3082
Note: Keep in mind I didn't use the rink address, I just used the city center according to google maps. ie. directions from Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Ottawa, ON yields 519 minutes. Also, I used St. Catherines, ON for Niagara.
All this talk about Owen Sound travel, but they are nowhere near the most traveled team. I would assume any realignment would focus on minimizing the travel for the top traveling teams.
For each of the top 7 travel teams, lets see who their closest neighbors are. You would probably need an iterative process to get the optimal solution, but I have gone ahead and grouped teams as it made sense to me:
Sault Ste. Marie ------> Sudbury, Saginaw, Flint, North Bay, Windsor, Sarnia
Ottawa ------> Kingston, Peterborough, Oshawa, North Bay, Mississauga, Barrie, Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener, Niagara, Sudbury (All the teams listed from Mississauga to Sudbury are nearly equidistant from Ottawa)
Saginaw ------> Flint, Sarnia, Windsor, London, Sault Ste. Marie, Erie, Kitchener, Hamilton, Guelph (Teams Sault Ste. Marie to Guelph are nearly equidistant)
Sudbury ------> North Bay, Barrie, Sault Ste. Marie, Mississauga, Oshawa, Owen Sound, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Oshawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)
Erie ------> Niagara, Hamilton, Mississauga, Guelph, Saginaw, Kitchener, Flint, London, Barrie, Oshawa, Windsor, Owen Sound
Kingston ------> Oshawa, Ottawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Barrie, Guelph, Hamilton
North Bay ------> Sudbury, Barrie, Oshawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Ottawa, Hamilton, Guelph, Owen Sound, Kitchener, Niagara (Teams Ottawa to Niagara are nearly equidistant)
Conclusion:
The divisions are really close to being optimized now as far as I can tell. Mississauga is slightly closer to the East than Hamilton (but it's also slightly closer to the Central). Owen Sound is slightly closer to the Central than Niagara. Niagara is closer to the Midwest than Owen Sound. It would probably make sense to put Guelph with Owen Sound in the Central and keep Hamilton in the MidWest. Swapping these 5 teams is the most optimal solution I could find. That being said, you would probably only shave off a few minutes of travel from the schedule so is it really worth it?
East: OTT, KGN, PBO, OSH, MISS
Central: SBY, NB, BAR, OS, GUE
MidWest: ER, NIA, HAM, KIT, LDN
West: SSM, SAG, FLNT, WSR, SAR