No one asked, but I did it anyway: how to do expansion in the NHL and handle the geographic imbalance.
1. Move the Arizona Coyotes to Quebec City. Long overdue.
2. Add an expansion team in Seattle. They want the Pacific NW rivalry.
3. Massive realignment: four divisions of eight teams, no conferences. Name each division after a famous hockey player.
GRETZKY DIVISION
Vancouver Canucks
Seattle Downpours
San Jose Sharks
Los Angeles Kings
Anaheim Ducks
Vegas Golden Knights
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
ORR DIVISION
Colorado Avalanche
Winnipeg Jets
Minnesota Wild
Dallas Stars
St. Louis Blues
Chicago Blackhawks
Nashville Predators
Columbus Blue Jackets
HOWE DIVISION
Pittsburgh Penguins
Toronto Maple Leafs
Detroit Red Wings
Buffalo Sabres
Ottawa Senators
Montreal Canadiens
Quebec Nordiques
Boston Bruins
LEMIEUX DIVISION
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
Washington Capitals
Carolina Hurricanes
Tampa Bay Lightning
Florida Panthers
4. For the playoffs: the top team in each division makes it automatically. The next 12 highest scoring teams are assigned by lottery into a playoff division.
5. Instead of best-of-7 series, we go to a round-robin of sorts, closer to the World Cup than the Stanley Cup. The "second season" is 12 games each for every team. You play each team 4 times. The highest scoring team in each group advances to the semifinals. The goal of this is to reduce potential cross-country travel. (Ties in "playoff points" are broken by regular season point totals.)
6. The winners of the round-robin go into best-of-7 series, as is today. These will be seeded by total regular season points--the top regular season point-getter plays the bottom regular season point-getter and gets home ice advantage. The #2 plays the #3.
7. Winners play for the Stanley Cup in a best-of-7.
You're welcome, Canada. (And America, I guess.)
