Major Realignment Overhaul Coming

With the move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg now official, the league has started talks of realignment to accommodate the relocated team. The Jets, as they will be called again, will play out of the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference for one final season with Tampa Bay, Washington, Florida and Carolina.

Originally, the league was going to just simply shift Winnipeg, but with teams like Detroit, Nashville and Columbus playing out of the Western Conference and creating traveling nightmares for them, as well as West Coast teams, the league has decided to do a complete overhaul effective with the 2012-2013 season.

The plan is two break up the league into four divisions - two in each conference - with one conference getting two 8-team divisions, likely the east, and the other getting two 7-team divisions.

The new realignment plan is likely to be approved at the Board of Governors meeting in December. So for now, for one more season, the league will continue under the current format.

I personally think they should just keep the current format and just do the overhauled realignment under it. With so many teams in the league now, seven and eight team divisions just seems to be too much. The idea of competing within a five-team division seems favorable and more competitive.