While the players shot down the recent proposal, can the NHL get it's conference realignment in a new CBA? If so, who would it benefit, and who would it hurt the most? Let's take a look at why the NHL wanted it in the first place.

If you took a look at a map of North America, put a pin on each location where there’s an NHL franchise and then guessed whether each team is in the Eastern or Western Conference, there might be a few surprises. For example: the Detroit Red Wings, who are just a few hours’ drive away from Toronto, are in the Western Conference. That means they have to travel all the way across the country to face teams like San Jose, Colorado, Dallas and Vancouver more often than they would surely like. Also, there are some weird issues with divisions where the Dallas Stars play in a division with four other teams that are in the West Coast time zone, which means tons of travel and time shifting for them.

We always hear of the wear travel has on teams, but it must be noted that this year's champions, the Lost Angeles Kings, were quite comfortable on the road. Is the travel the issue here, or does the NHL have other things in mind?

So while the NHL came up with a new alignment, which included four conferences – two with seven-team conferences and two with eight-team conferences – with the top four teams in each making the playoffs. Here’s how it could have looked:

Proposed NHL Realignment

Sidney CrosbyConference A
Anaheim
Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

Conference B
Chicago
Columbus
Dallas
Detroit
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg

Conference C
Boston
Buffalo
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Conference D
Carolina
New Jersey
NY Islanders
NY Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

The only problem is that the players didn’t agree and we’re still stuck with the old format.

The players, who are led by Donald Fehr, didn’t give their seal of approval because they have concerns about the player travel and the new playoff system. In regards to travel, the players are concerned about more back-to-back situations that the league had planned, lengthier road trips and number of border crossings. In regards to the playoff system, there is some clamoring among players – and fans too – that by shifting the teams around, some historical rivalries could be hampered. 

The main issue here is that the league tried to get this done without the consent of the players, and while they’ve definitely had the power throughout the during of this entire Collective Bargaining Agreement, it’s coming to an end this offseason and the players want to make sure that they’re heard. At the end of the day, this is probably not a very big issue for the players, but Fehr wants to show that they are not going to roll over for any issue – big or small. 

In the last CBA, the league got everything they wanted and that was mostly because the league was in bad shape financially. Since then, the league has grown in popularity and revenue, and now the players want a bigger piece of the pie. That’s the main issue that we’ll be talking about and reading about this offseason: how can everyone be happy with how much money they’re making? 

Don’t expect this negotiation to keep the game on ice, though, like it did during the standoff of 2004-05. With parity at an all-time high, excitement back in the sport and plenty of momentum, these two sides should find a way to keep things moving by agreeing upon a new CBA this offseason.