According to Larry Brooks in the NY Post, the NHL and NHLPA are planning to meet soon to discuss realignment for the 2013-14 season.
Realignment was voted on last year by the Board of Governors but voted down by the NHLPA because, as Don Fehr notes in the Post, there were concerns about travel and the disadvantage that teams playing in the eight team conferences would have in making the playoffs.
Fehr says that the NHLPA is willing to work with the NHL on realignment as long as the NHL provides the necessary information to go along with their proposal.
For all previous updates on realignment, CLICK HERE.
At ESPN Insider, Craig Custance writes that the NHL and the players still need to agree on a new plan for divisional realignment after the players voted down the proposal that the owners agreed to.
That proposal saw the Rangers in a division in with the Islanders, Devils, Flyers, Penguins, Hurricanes and Capitals.
Custance spoke with a player who said “Those New York teams, geez, they’d never have to leave their time zone pretty much ever. I like the idea of everybody playing each other twice. That part is cool; you want to see every team and go to every team’s building. But we’re the ones who have to do it. We should have a little input.”
It was announced on Friday that the proposed realignment for next season would not happen because the NHLPA had not given it’s consent to the league by their deadline.
Brandon Dubinsky told the Daily News why the players didn’t support the realignment proposal:
“Teams in the West were unhappy because they felt they had the poorest chance of making the playoffs, and absolutely mathematically there was, versus us out here in the East. There’s teams in our (proposed) conference that were upset … We felt like our conference was stronger than another team’s conference, and it shouldn’t be fair that Washington, us, Jersey, Pittsburgh and Philly are all in the same division. Only one of us has the opportunity to get to the conference finals?”
The divisions will stay the same for next season.
This seems like something that will be worked out in the CBA and I think that the players just wanted more time to study the whole thing. There were some nice things to realignment, and some not so nice things like fewer division games and seeing the Maple Leafs the same amount as seeing the Coyotes.
I believe the Rangers were one of the 4 teams that voted No vs. this re-alignment proposal. I think they were content with 6-div format— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) December 06, 2011
The vote passed in favor of realignment 26-4.
It is believed that the four teams that voted NO were from the Eastern Conference, so that would make sense that the Rangers were one of them. It is more travel out west for the Rangers and fewer games against the Bruins, Canadiens and Maple Leafs who are all such a big part of the Rangers history.
The first two rounds of the playoffs are in the division and then they would be reseeded for the third round.
Larry Brooks writes in the NY Post that players don’t like the idea of the four division set up.
Top four teams in each division will make the playoffs and it will be a tough road for the Rangers with the addition of the Capitals into the division.
At Sportsnet, John Shannon writes that there are two proposals that are going to be brought up at the Board of Governers meetings early this week about realignment.
One of them is just swapping out Winnipeg for Detroit.
The other is to go with the four division plan that would see every team play a home and home and the first two rounds of the playoffs be divisional.
I think that each team playing a home and home is a good idea even if it means one or two fewer games against the Islanders, Flyers and Devils. Those lost regular season games would be more than made up for in a playoff series, in my opinion. I just wonder if 2/3 of the league feel the same way.
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