Phoenix Coyotes file for bankrupty

[LeannaM]

Jim Balsillie offers $212.5 million to buy the Coyotes on the condition that they be moved to Southern Ontario.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=277664

Moving the Coyotes to the East would mean moving a team (Atlanta?) to the West.

HF Boards is discussing this, but nobody seems to have a good idea. Most of their ideas involve breaking up Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis which seems like a bad idea to me. I suggested maybe have 4 divisions in the west, as so:

Division 1:
San Jose
Anaheim
Los Angeles
Colorado

Division Two:
St. Louis
Columbus
Detroit
Chicago

Division Three:
Vancouver
Edmonton
Minnesota
Calgary

Division Four:
Dallas
Atlanta
Nashville

Obviously the divisions would be uneven.

What do you think?

Of course, Charles Wang may want to move the Islanders west.

[raptor56]

why not make it easy and distribute the 3 extra teams amongst the three other division?

Division 1:
San Jose
Anaheim
Los Angeles
Colorado
Dallas

Division Two:
St. Louis
Columbus
Detroit
Chicago
Atlanta

Division Three:
Vancouver
Edmonton
Minnesota
Calgary
Nashville


or make it two divisions again

Campbell Conference

Smythe Division:
Vancouver
Edmonton
Calgary
San Jose
Anaheim
Los Angeles
Colorado
Dallas

Norris Divison:
St. Louis
Columbus
Detroit
Chicago
Atlanta
Minnesota
Nashville

[d.mcc]

Why not just scrap geographic divisions altogether??? Baseball style, Campbell Conference, Prince of Wales conference. That way 2 or 3 teams that are in the west, that should really be in the east don't have the most extreme travel...

[Detroitej72]

I hope the Coyotes do move back to Canada. Then move Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina, and San Jose north, preferably to Canada. There really is no reason to have teams south of the Mason/Dixon Line. Hockey is a NORTHERN SPORT!!!

Of coarse Bettman will oppose any moves because he wants hockey to rival the NBA, the league where he got his start.

I also would support a return to the old division names, Norris, Smythe, Adams, and Patrick, as well as the conference names Campbell and Wales.

[Ray1936]

Nuts. The original six should be in a conference by themselves. I've always thought that.

Detroit
Chicago
New York
Toronto
Montreal
Boston

Breaking that group up years back was the dumbest thing the NHL has ever done, and they've done some DUMB things.

[jiminnm]

I hope the Coyotes do move back to Canada. Then move Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina, and San Jose north, preferably to Canada. There really is no reason to have teams south of the Mason/Dixon Line. Hockey is a NORTHERN SPORT!!!

From a purely hockey standpoint, I agree with you (add Atlanta, Dallas and Anaheim to your list). If the Coyotes move, it may be a long while before I see the Wings play in person again as we travel to Phoenix once or twice a year to see them. Dallas is a bit too far to do that and they have real winter in Denver (as well as very high ticket prices).

[Downriviera]

Nuts. The original six should be in a conference by themselves. I've always thought that.

Detroit
Chicago
New York
Toronto
Montreal
Boston

Breaking that group up years back was the dumbest thing the NHL has ever done, and they've done some DUMB things.

Amen to that.

[LeannaM]

From my understanding, San Jose is a pretty good hockey city.