Quote:
Originally Posted by JHikka
A Phoenix move to Quebec seems to be imminent at this point. Seattle would be a great market but the arena issue persists. One potential market that not many people point to is Houston. They've had a solid IHL and AHL franchise for a while which is rumoured to be moving to Iowa for next season. Rumblings are that the team is moving at the end of their lease to open up room for a potential replacement. Houston is a strong hockey market (stronger than Dallas) and has more adult and youth competitive hockey. I don't see a new team playing in Houston in the near future, but it's a market to keep an eye out for.
If Quebec were to enter the league it would be difficult to change the alignment without upsetting a lot of teams. Adding new teams would make the west a bit more stable (Seattle in the Pacific division, for starters). It's difficult to move Colorado back into the Pacific after giving them a much better division under this formula, and this formula is based off of time zones more than anything else. The NE division would have too many teams and the obvious teams to move would be Tampa Bay and Florida. You can't really split them up but you can't add them to either the Midwest or Atlantic without creating divisions with too many teams. Two teams that really should have been placed together are Nashville and Carolina and presumably they would have created a very strong rivalry. Having Columbus in the same division as Pittsburgh is going to make for a strong Ohio/Pennsylvania rivalry and of course having Detroit with the NE is a great move. Putting Winnipeg into a proper division with Minnesota is a no-loss situation and obviously much more ideal than their current situation.
I really like the current 2013-2014 alignment with Phoenix included, although I can't deny that moving them to Quebec would be a wise decision. At this point it's just a matter of how to deal with the division alignments moving forward once/if Quebec receives the Coyotes. |
Great post, and I resonate with your thoughts
The current alignment has mostly to do with solving the problem of an NHL club in Winnipeg. Bettman made mention how its unlikely any realignment would have happened had the Thrashers stayed put. Right now, the Coyotes are still in Phoenix so they'll approach it that way. Though I share your puzzlement over if the Coyotes do move to Québec, what the best solution would be .
The fact it helped out other teams in the process was just a side benefit. Should the Coyotes actually move, I wouldn't be surprised to see another full overhaul or teams moved around since "the present situation" would thus change
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hybrid247
I think the ideal thing to do would be to move Coyotes to Seattle and the Panthers to Quebec. Tampa Bay seems to have pretty good support and I think that city has proven that it deserves its team so I would be against them moving. I also thought that the Islanders could be a team to move to Quebec but that team has too much history. Not to mention that they plan to move to Barclays arena.
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Ideally, perhaps. But realistically, regardless of how the Panthers have dismal attendance and the hockey club loses money, overall the ownership group is pretty comfortable with the setup they have and I don't think they're in any real immediate danger of moving.
If any team is really in danger of moving soon, its the Coyotes. And while I personally hope they move to Québec, its possible they could move elsewhere as you pointed out.
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