NHL Expansion a Must to Fix Imbalance of Premature Realignment

August 1st, 2013 by Steve Silverman Leave a reply »

Expansion may be right around the corner in the NHL.

It certainly seems that is the case. KJR radio host Mitch Levy tweeted that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is interested in putting an expansion team in Seattle, perhaps in time for the 2014-15 season.

Seattle was mentioned prominently as a potential relocation site for the Phoenix Coyotes had they left the desert this summer. While the Coyotes were saved from having to move out of their arena in Glendale, Az., the NHL knows that expansion is needed on several fronts.

The mathematics of the league is unwieldy in it's current form. Columbus and Detroit have moved from the Western Conference to the East, while ill-placed Winnipeg has shifted from the Eastern Conference to the West.

The upshot of the realignment is that there will be 16 teams in the Eastern Conference in 2013-14, while only 14 teams will call the Western Conference home. That will make life significantly more of a challenge for the 16 Eastern Conference teams. They will compete for eight playoff spots, as will the 14 Western Conference teams.



It's quit ...

Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by

Advertisement

Comments are closed.