In my last post I looked at the possible relocation of the Phoenix Coyotes to Seattle and how that could have an effect on NHL Realignment for next year. As you can probably guess from the title, we’ll look at how things could shake up if the Coyotes move to a city that has a very new 17,000+ arena and has been rumoured to be in the running for a new franchise for a while, Kansas City.

If you didn’t read my previous post/suffer from memory loss, the TL;DR of it is as follows:

• The NHL can’t have Winnipeg be in the Southeast for one more year, so some changes are coming.
• Even if they can’t blow up the league for next year, I think that there can be some minor tweak now to set up for seismic shift down the line.
• They have to wait and see where Phoenix goes first before any changes can happen – they don’t want to move Columbus, Nashville, or Detroit to the East, only to have them be forced to switch back a year later
• I think that Columbus is the most likely team to move East, it’s the best hope of saving this franchise. Detroit will have to wait in line even longer. If the NHL decides to swap Nashville instead, that is an easy change from these maps, Detroit is more complicated though.
• Also, if Columbus moves to the Southeast, they can join their division rivals in Florida and Tampa Bay in moving to join the Northeast in the plan that was vetoed, only they make some ounce of geographic sense.

If the Coyotes move to Kansas, will they stay in the Pacific Division or will they go to a different division in the West? Kansas City is in the heart of the Mid-West and of course have a cross-state rival in St. Louis but are relatively close to Colorado, Dallas, Chicago, and Minnesota. In short, they really could fit anywhere.

The first idea is to look at the path of least resistance, and keep them in the Pacific Division. Of course it is a little bonkers to have a team in the middle of the Great Plains play with the three California teams, it would give a slight reprieve to Dallas, who has been stuck with the California teams for the past thirteen years and would no doubt love to have someone in their Division that shares a Time Zone with them. Of course, we would need to get Winnipeg out of the Southeast, and it could look something like this…

Obviously the Jets would love to join the other Western Canadian teams and Minnesota would get their dream of joining Chicago and Detroit.

Colorado would obviously be isolated here with the four Canadian teams. I’m not sure how will the market would take that, especially since they probably belong with the California teams. Most importantly, this would not be the way to establish a market in Kansas City. Remember, this isn’t Winnipeg, people won’t buy sell their children for season tickets, they need a reason to care, and having the majority of their games start after 9pm local time would not help.

Sorry Minnesota, you’re sticking with the Canadians! Let’s try to get the Kansas KCoyotes (as they shall henceforth be referred to as — since the Kansas City Scouts are in New Jersey after all) in with the St. Louis Blues, which is most certainly where they belong, they are in the same state after all. It could look like this..

 Kansas City, Colorado, and Winnipeg would all see this as a slam dunk, getting some actual honest to goodness geographic rivals for a change. Dallas and Minnesota would much rather get in the Central Division, where they belong, but at least some of the problems with late starts and Time Zones that they currently face would be alleviated. Still though, I don’t see Dallas being too happy with this, even though Colorado is only one hour ahead, as opposed to two like all the other teams, they still don’t share a division with anyone in their Time Zone. Also, I know that Minnesota is a strong hockey market and all, but to share a division with four Canadian teams — especially one that is two Time Zones away — is a big ask.

So can we get both the Stars and the KCoyotes out of the Pacific Division, while saving Minnesota, or Colorado from a division that has four Canadian teams?

Let’s see…

Now that I look at it, I think it’s the Worst of Both Worlds from the two previous ideas. It does get Dallas into the division they want, and it gets Kansas City out of the Pacific. Unfortunately it breaks up the Western Canadian teams. Although competitive balance changes all the time, it’s hard not to see this proposed Northwest Division as a bit of a joke, currently none of those five teams are in playoff position, they have early 2000s Southeast Division written all over them. I know that the Oilers will get good and the Wild and Jets have shown flashes this year, but come one. This is only a temporary plan anyway, so we need to look at short-term competitive balance for a bit too.

So I think that the second one is not only the best, but also the most likely. In case you don’t feel like scrolling back up that’ll get us.

PACIFIC: Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Colorado, Dallas
NORTHWEST: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Minnesota
CENTRAL: Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City
NORTHEAST: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo
ATLANTIC: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York Rangers, New York Islanders
SOUTHEAST: Columbus, Washington, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay

This seems like a nice and happy compromise that keeps the fewest people unhappy, which should be the aim of this whole process, as opposed to just keeping the East Coast owners happy.

Plus come on, who doesn’t love that Northwest Division?

Hands down people in Minneapolis-St. Paul.