The NHL has tweaked its four-conference realignment proposal and could hand it to the NHLPA in the near future, Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman reports.
Friedman mapped out the following setup during HNIC’s Hot Stove intermission report (teams that changed conferences from the last realignment plan in bold):
Proposed realignment
“Eastern Side”
Conference 1
Carolina
Columbus
New Jersey
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington
Conference 2
Boston
Buffalo
Detroit
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto
“Western Side”
Conference 3
Chicago
Colorado
Dallas
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg
Conference 4
Anaheim
Calgary
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver
Word of the possible tweaks surfaced on Feb. 13. At that time, ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun reported that the NHL’s owners could vote on the proposed changes as early as Monday (if all goes well, at least).
We’ll see if that timeline - and a number of other factors - have changed since then.
Keep in mind that this is a report, not an official announcement.
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Realignment plan to be tweaked