NHL Success Is All About Location: The Best Way to Reorganize the League

As much as I love hockey, the business of the sport screwed up so much in the '90s that even a full decade hasn't been able to heal the wounds.

The move to bigger arenas really hurt the hockey atmosphere in Boston, Philly, Toronto, and Chicago and mildly harmed the Buffalo and Montreal atmospheres.

The lack of a solid television scene made hockey less accessible. The canceled season and New Jersey trap are items that will take a long time for the NHL to recover from, since they spit in the face of tradition and action-packed hockey.

Hockey wanted to be basketball—but never could be—and their biggest sin was to move hockey from cities that cared to cities that didn’t. Even better was that cities that did get hockey put the arenas in inconvenient locations. Florida has their arena in Sunrise, while Phoenix has it in Glendale.

The NHL can fix it's biggest problem, but it’s going to take some risks and some massive team movement.

I would prefer contraction, but that probably is not going to happen, and expansion would only further dilute the product. The NHL would have to work with the owners to have a 30-league team that better matches the current fanbase and provides the opportunity for greatest growth.

Six teams have to move in my model. Most of the teams have to move away from the South, since the experiment didn’t work. One is a classic team but plays in such a wreck of a stadium they have to move.

Of course a few other cities can be considered, but I believe this 30-team league would create the greatest opportunity for rivalries, growth, and fan interest.

Division 1: The Canadian Division

Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec (from Nashville), Hamilton (from Florida)

This division would be huge, as all of Eastern Canada would be involved. Right here this move would instantly make the NHL more intense in Canada, and really it’s so little in Miami and Nashville that the effect on the US market is minimal.

Division 2: The Atlantic Division

Boston, New York Rangers, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington

All of these cities are tied together in a small region, and all are connected by quick airline shuttles and trains. Considering that most of these cities already have huge built-in rivalries in other sports, they can easily transfer to hockey. Boston hates New York, and vice versa, yet in hockey they are in a different division. No more.

Division 3: The Pacific NW Division

Winnipeg (Welcome back Jets), Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle (from Atlanta)

I know Winnipeg isn’t really in the Northwest, but having them in a division with three other Canadian teams and a team not that far from Canada would make this another pretty entertaining regional division. Seattle also deserves something good to happen to them.

Division 4: The Western Division

Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Las Vegas (from Long Island), Colorado

I really debated one team in the LA area. Two might be too many, but moving one of those teams away and having a team in Hartford made the divisions a bit trickier. Plus if the Kings were ever good, I think they would get support. Vegas should have a team, and I can guarantee the new Vegas arena would be a lot nicer than Nassau Coliseum.

Division 5: The Midwest Conference

Dallas, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City (from Carolina)

I’m not sure hockey will work in Kansas City, but I will take the chance it is more popular because I believe the Chiefs and Royals are pretty unsatisfying. Dallas will still have a lot of travel, but at least they will be in the same time zone.

Division 6: The "I guess Hartford could replace Tampa here" Division

Buffalo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Tampa Bay

Tampa is definitely the misfit, yet for some reason I think the Lightning work in Tampa, maybe because of a lot of snowbirds living in Central Florida.

Of course in this division, they would have more games where residents of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York—the states where people move from to Florida—are at the game, but shouldn’t that be the basis of a Southern team?

The other four teams are pretty close to each other, and Tampa would be their welcome vacation games.

There are obviously some issues with this model: if Canadian teams could afford the budgets, if Hamilton would drain a lot into Buffalo and Toronto, and if Kansas City and Vegas will support hockey. I’m not sure.

I do know one thing for sure. The current cities those teams are in won’t.