With the Toronto Maple Leafs making stops in Calgary on Tuesday and Edmonton on Thursday, the rivalry between those Canadian Eastern and Western Conference matchups are off the charts. The Athletic’s James Mirtle (subscription required) wonders if it wouldn’t be a smart idea to change the conferences, especially down the road when the Quebec Nordiques return to the NHL.
The scribe’s suggestion is create an all-Canadian conference to replace the Central Division, moving all eight Canadian teams including the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Quebec City in the same division. Non-Canadian Central Division teams would be moved to either the Atlantic Division or the Pacific Division where the Canadian teams left holes.
There would be two key outcomes to this move, including increased revenue as rivalry matchups in 34 out of each team’s 82-game schedule will increase ratings and increase ticket sales. Currently, Canadian teams only play 16 games against in-country rivals. Playoffs would also promote multiple Canada-vs.-Canada rivalries and also would increase TV ratings.
Mirtle mentions some downsides to realigning the divison, which would include increased travel times for other teams such as the Minnesota Wild if they were moved to the Pacific Divison, but still feels the NHL should seriously look into that over the next few years.
- The Dallas Stars will be without wing Antoine Roussel, who is expected to miss tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks with the flu, according to coach Ken Hitchock. The coach added that Roussel is day-to-day regarding Sunday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. Roussel has three goals and eight points in 25 games for Dallas.
- Las Vegas Review-Journal’s David Schoen writes that Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland remains day-to-day after suffering an injury to his hand in Thursday’s game against the Minnesota Wild. The 35-year-old blueliner missed last night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets. He has two goals and nine points in 24 games this season and has been a key piece to the expansion team’s successful run so far this year.
- Craig Morgan of NHL.com tweets that Arizona Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said that defenseman Jakob Chychrun might play Sunday against the Vegas Golden Knights. The 2016 first-round pick hasn’t played this year and is currently on a conditioning stint with the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. He had knee surgery in August and would make a big addition the Coyotes defensive core. He played 68 games for Arizona last year as an 18-year-old.
I like the idea of a Canadian Division.
This is interesting & something to think about in terms of realignment. This would most definitely ramp up rivalries & possibly draw in, on the fence type of fans. Travel would be an issue in many circumstances & why didn’t the league consider this a long time ago? Maybe they did & many of us just didn’t hear about it. I am pretty much a hockey purist but this article sure got my attention! Holger, this. is good stuff man & I am glad that you put this up.
I think what it would do is…. make sense
It’s not a terrible idea, but travel between Vancouver and the Mon/Ott/Que would be annoying after a couple years, plus you probably completely remove the idea of an all Canadian team Stanley Cup. Toronto and Edmonton would always be facing each other in round 1 or 2.
Vegas, you are absolutely correct about the issue with travel. Look at it this way though: when Detroit was in the Western Conference for years, the travel was awful but it worked.
But, like you said, we would never see an all Canadian team Stanley Cup Final. I am not sure if the league could come up with some type of point system or mix & match the Conference’s using points to shoot for an all Canadian matchup for the Cup?
The idea of this could possibly give us something to debate about for quite a while.
That was only one team technically with an inconvenience though. This way, it would be like 5 Canadian teams constantly crossing the country, plus a team like Minnesota too.
To me, go to 8 4 team divisions, and put one Canadian division in each conference. They may be still a few travel issues, but not as bad. Then you could also have a chance at the all Canadian Stanley Cup still.
I’m not a big fan of the all Canadian idea. In my view, you would over-saturate the rivalry and it would quickly lose its lustre. It’d be very similar to when the NHL decided it was a great idea to have teams play their division rivals 8 times a year and classic rivalries very quickly became “just another game” with little to no meaning.
I like the idea of an all-Canada division. Ideally, the league could split into a Pacific, Atlantic/Metro, Central, and the Canada division. Off the top of my head I don’t know if there would be an even 8 teams for each division (while also keeping teams within reasonable distance of the other teams) and working out which division, between the Central and Canada, would be in which conference would be a nightmare but the concept isn’t that bad.
As mentioned, it would prevent an all Canadian Stanley Cup which, but it would also increase the chances of having a Canadian vs American Stanley Cup (while also boosting the chances that a Canadian team makes the Stanley Cup). While an all Canadian Stanley Cup is probably good for hockey, it might not be that great for continuing to build the American fan base for hockey. Plus, I think the potential to have a Canadian team face an American team in the Stanley Cup could create storylines and buzz similar to the 2010 Olympics that saw the US and Canada in the Gold Medal Match (even though the teams would have mixed nationalities).