If I Were King Of The Sports World

[Full disclosure: this idea stems from a Sports Guy article (I believe from a mailbag article or a chat) on espn.com. Ever since I read this idea I have tried to figure out how it could all work and I think I have found out how to do it. The idea is to completely re-vamp the NHL so that there is a "Canada" conference and a "U.S." conference comprised of 12 teams in each conference, with the Stanley Cup Finals guaranteeing that a Canadian team and an American would play against each other. So, that said, if I were ever made King of the sports world, here is how I would change the NHL---a league that is probably bound to become more popular as HDTV becomes more commonplace in all American and Canadian households.]

The NHL currently has 30 teams, 6 of them are based in Canada. How is this possible? Not only that, but some of the teams in America are so wholly ridiculous. 3 teams in California? A team in Phoenix? A team called the Nashville Predators? Too many of these teams seem like bad attempts at fictional sports franchises in uninspired Hollywood movies.

This re-alignment and contraction of NHL teams needs to happen for three reasons. First, Canada should have more teams; hockey is their national sport after all. Second, the Stanley Cup is the greatest trophy in all of sports. Wouldn’t its playoffs be better served if it was shorter (better competition through fewer teams) and if it was always billed as “Canada vs. America”? Finally, this re-alignment would have 12 teams in Canada and 12 teams in America which means that 12 teams would be contracted. Think about how great the level of play across the board would be when the NHL holds a draft of all the players from the contracted teams. Especially when, under my plan, Washington would be contracted and a certain Alex Ovechkin would the #1 overall pick from said contraction draft.

But before I go into the specifics of the contracted teams and new Canadian teams, let me go over some basic ground rules of what the new Stanley Cup Playoffs would look like first. The NHL would be shrunk from 30 to 24 teams–12 in Canada, 12 in the U.S. The Stanley Cup Playoffs would then have the following format:

— The top 6 teams from the Canada Conference and U.S. Conference would play best-of-seven series.

— The #1 seeds would play the #6s, #2s play #5s, and #3s play #4s.

— The winner of the Canada Conference plays the winner of the U.S. Conference in a best-of-seven series, with the team that has the better overall regular season record having home-ice advantage for the Finals matchup

Essentially, the format stays pretty much the same save for the number of teams that would be allowed in the playoffs changing from 16 to 12. Again, fewer teams in the playoffs would mean better overall play because the 6th best team in the conference has a much better chance (on average) of beating the best team in the conference than the 8th best team does.

So… now for the $1 million dollar question: How would this all work?

Currently, the Canadian teams are: Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames, and Ottawa Senators. They would all stay put. The 6 teams I would add would be in Winnipeg, Regina, Hamilton, Halifax, Quebec City, and Victoria. (For those of you not too familiar with the Canadian Provinces–Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba, Regina is the capital of Saskatoon, Hamilton is in Ontario, Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia, Quebec City is the capital of Quebec, and Victoria is the capital of British Columbia.)

This scenario would give the Canada Conference 4 teams out west (Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary), 2 teams in the “Midwest” (Regina and Winnipeg), and 6 in the east (Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Halifax, Montreal, and Quebec City). So, the Western Division of the Canada Conference would be Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Winnipeg; the Eastern Division would be Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Halifax, Montreal, and Quebec City.

As for the U.S. Conference, the following teams would be contracted outright: Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes, Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Washington Capitals. Additionally, the San Jose Sharks (or the Kings, or Mighty Ducks; whichever makes more sense) would be re-located to Seattle.

Why re-locate a team to Seattle? Two reasons: 1) Seattle would be a much better hockey city than any city in California, especially after the hi-jacking of the Sonics has the left the city with only two pro sports teams. 2) By adding a team in Victoria you would have 3 teams (Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle) all within 150 miles of each other. I would even name the new team the Seattle Pilots, as a reverse ode to how Colorado named their MLB team the Rockies^[1].

So, with all those teams contracted and a new team in Seattle, what would the newly-formed U.S. Conference look like?

The Western Division would consist of Seattle, Colorado, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Buffalo. The Eastern Division would consist of the New York teams (Rangers & Islanders), New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, and Pittsburgh.

(Note: my first instinct was to get rid of the Islanders and keep the Capitals but… it would be a crime to contract a team that once won 3 Stanley Cups in a row, and, again, by getting rid of Washington you make Ovechkin available for a draft amongst the new Canadian teams.)

So, once everything has been re-aligned you hold a draft of all the players from the 8 contracted teams, which would work like this:

The 6 new Canadian teams would have exclusive access to the first 6 rounds of players from the contracted teams—giving each new expansion team 6 players to start with (i.e.-each team selects one player per round). From here, the remaining players would be pooled into a draft for the other 16 teams. The existing 16 teams can choose to draft or not (some of them might not be interested in any of the talent beyond a certain round). Whoever is left from the contracted teams’ draft becomes available for the expansion Canadian teams, as well as any players that have filed for free agency, or via normal trades between teams. Finally, whichever expansion Canadian team drew the #6 pick in the contracted draft (because it would all be randomly selected, lottery-style) would receive the #1 overall pick in the NHL Draft. And the #5 team would get the #2 pick, etc., followed by the existing team with the worst record the season before getting the #7 pick and moving up from there.

And because the league would have fewer teams the draft in general would see better talent dispersed throughout fewer teams, which should theoretically equal, again, stronger play throughout the season.

Of course, this will never ever happen but if I were King Of All Sports this would be one of the first things I would try. Because at the end of the day the NHL would be the perfect guinea pig to see if all-out contraction of teams and re-alignment would equal an exceptional product. And the whole Canada-versus-the-US thing just seems like an excellent marketing tool, especially since the Stanley Cup Playoffs occur during a relatively slow sports time in the States. (Yes, baseball is just starting but the season is so long that it is hard to genuinely be fully wrapped up in it 20 or 30 games into the season.)

Finally, if you’re wondering what I think the team names should be for the new Canadian teams this is what I’ve come up with off the top of my head, almost all of it simply culled from each city’s history:

— Victoria Cougars (name of the Stanley Cup-winning team in ’25)
— Hamilton Tigers (name of NHL team of the ’20′s)
— Quebec Nordiques (why not dig up that name again?)
— Halifax Ospreys (I don’t know, the Halifax flag has an osprey on it…)
— Regina Buffaloes (again, I don’t know, there’s a buffalo on the city’s official seal…)
— Winnipeg Jets (such a no-brainer there to re-hash that name)

[1] Denver had a short-lived NHL team called the Colorado Rockies from 1976-82 (which would eventually become the New Jersey Devils). And when MLB chose Denver to have a new team, the city decided to dig up the Rockies name for their baseball team instead of coming up with a new one. Conversely, before Bud Selig hi-jacked what is now the Brewers from Seattle, that team was known as the Pilots and they were in Seattle for only one season. Therefore, in an ode to that one-and-done MLB team, I think the new NHL team in Seattle should be called the Pilots.