Anaheim Ducks: A Blast to the Future- NHL Division Realignments

With the newest addition of an NHL franchise in Seattle, the league is about to get really interesting, especially for the Anaheim Ducks.

TJ Watson takes us on a journey to the future to explore some possible divisional realignments and how it could affect the Anaheim Ducks and the rest of the NHL.

Last year, the NHL introduced their fans to the Vegas Golden Knights, a team that captured a lot of people’s hearts after the shooting that happened prior to their existence. Their magical run came short when they lost to the Washington Capitals, but they captured the fans’ imaginations of who would be the next team that would be added to the league.

Then we found out this year that the city of Seattle, Washington would be a recipient of a new NHL franchise, pushing the number of teams to 32. Although we must wait a few years before they arrive, the possibilities of how both conferences being realigned are endless, as well as the factors that go into it: proximity, history, rivalry, etc.

Hartford Whalers 2.0?

You also have two teams possibly relocating. In the East, the Florida Panthers are the lone candidate to relocate. According to a statista.com report, the Panthers only average thirteen thousand fans over the last few years.

A contributing factor could lie in the fact that the Panthers have only made the playoffs only twice this decade and both times were one and done (2012 and 2016).

If the Panthers do relocate, one city that might welcome the Panthers could be Hartford, Connecticut, the former home of the Hartford Whalers.

California Dreaming or the Texas Two-Step?

Meanwhile, out West, it’s the Arizona Coyotes, who haven’t made the playoffs since 2012 as the Phoenix Coyotes. They lost in five games to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings.

According to a hockeydb.com report, like the Florida Panthers, the Coyotes only average a little bit over thirteen thousand fans over the last five years. The report also mentions that this year, they have over sixteen thousand fans attending their games, the highest in franchise history.

Like the Panthers, the Coyotes haven’t experienced a lot of playoff success, so possible relocation could be imminent. Unlike the Panthers, the Coyotes have more options to relocate.

Two states that could welcome the Coyotes are California and Texas. California has a lot of hockey presence in northern and southern California, the Sharks holding it down in North Cali, while the Ducks and Kings battle to rule Southern California.

The question is, could California handle another team, and if so, who would be the beneficiary? The three possible choices are San Francisco, Sacramento or Oakland since they all reside in northern California.

If the Coyotes do relocate to California, I would choose Oakland because the Golden State Warriors are moving to San Francisco and the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas. With both teams leaving Oakland, the NHL might look there as a potential destination.

Then there’s the Lone Star State, aka Texas. This option looks more promising because there’s only one team currently playing in Texas: the Dallas Stars. Whether it’s Houston, San Antonio, or Austin, another team in Texas guarantees an in-state rivalry. Travel time would range from three to four hours to drive and half that time to fly.

Houston and San Antonio are viable options because they could follow LA’s example and share the same arena with the cities’ respective NBA teams (Toyota Center for Houston and AT&T Center in San Antonio) or they could find their own place to play.

Then there’s the state capital, Austin. There are no pro sports teams that reside there, which means, the team wouldn’t have to share the spotlight. If I were a part of the NHL relocation committee, I would seriously consider having the Coyotes relocating to Texas because having four or five games against your in-state rival would be must-see TV.

B’East’ly Realignment

With those options in play, I’ve decided to put my hat into the ring and give my opinion on how I would realign the divisions. A lot of factors that went into divisional realignments were history, rivalries old and new, travel time, and the playoffs.

A new playoff system would modify the current one in which it would return to the old playoff format of top 4 in each division playing in divisional semis/finals before going to the conference finals leading into the Stanley Cup Finals.

So, without further ado, I’ll start in the Eastern Conference.

Atlantic Division: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, and Toronto

Metropolitan Division: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington

As currently constructed, things look good. Old-school rivalries kept intact within both divisions as well as decent travel between the cities. However, factoring Florida’s possible relocation to Hartford, that changes the divisions up a little bit, but not too much, as there are certain rivalries kept intact.

Atlantic Divison (based on possible realignment): Boston, Buffalo, Columbus, Detroit, Montreal, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Toronto

Metropolitan Divison (based on possible realignment): Carolina, Florida (possible relocation to Hartford), New Jersey, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, and Washington

The newly modified divisions still have old-school rivalries, yet they encourage new ones to emerge. On one side, you would keep the Keystone State rivalry intact with Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Plus, both teams would reunite with an old playoff rival in Boston.

You keep the Montreal and Toronto border war alive, and finally, Columbus and Detroit would reunite their short-lived Central Division rivalry. You also have travel proximity between those states as well as Montreal and Toronto. So, in the end, the possibilities are something to behold.

In the other division, the New York and New Jersey rivals would join a division that includes Carolina, a newly relocated Florida team, Tampa Bay and Washington. Though at face value, there’s only the New York and New Jersey rivalry to look forward too, one must not look too far as there are a lot of stars that are fun to watch: Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Taylor Hall, etc.

If the NHL realigns the Eastern Conference this way, there will be a lot of fireworks in both divisions and having the playoffs being reseeded to the top 4 in each division, you could possibly have traditional powers matching against star power, and that is something the NHL would go for.

As the West Turns

Now onto the West, and this is where things get more interesting. While the Eastern conference forges their rivalries from the past, the Western conference mixes some history with regional pride as well as playoff history.

As an Anaheim Ducks fan, having rivals like Los Angeles and San Jose could be fun to beat but when we lose, it’s harder to swallow. With Seattle joining the Wild West and Arizona possibly relocating, I wanted to experiment a little and went with a new look into how the Western conference divisions would look like. Here’s the current look.

Pacific Division: Anaheim, Arizona, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver, and Vegas

Central Division: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, and Winnipeg

The divisions as they’re currently constructed, have some good regional rivalries in the Central. While, in the Pacific, the California triangle as well as the Edmonton and Calgary rivalry, highlight the best in the current Pacific division.

With Seattle becoming a new franchise in a few years and Arizona possibly relocating, this is how I would relocate the two western conference divisions.

Pacific Divison (based on possible realignment): Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, and Vegas

Central Divison (based on possible realignment): Arizona (relocation to Houston/San Antonio), Chicago, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Vancouver, Winnipeg

The new and improved Anaheim Ducks division ships Arizona and Vancouver to the other division and brings in Colorado who joins the new Seattle franchise, forming new rivalries. The Anaheim Ducks rivalries against the Kings and Sharks stay intact, as well as a new rivalry against the Golden Knights.

What really makes this division appealing are the potential rivalries between Colorado, Seattle, Calgary, and Edmonton. Colorado and Washington are nearest to the Canadian border, which could form rivalries with both Calgary and Edmonton.

What I also like about this newly formed Pacific division are new potential rivals for the Anaheim Ducks. With flight time just over two and a half hours between Anaheim and Denver, seeing the Colorado Avalanche and Anaheim Ducks go at one another would have an interesting twist, considering how both teams have gone at one another in years past.

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Another potential rival for the Anaheim Ducks could come in Seattle, for one, because of the proximity and two, like Vegas, Seattle could be another expansion surprise that contends with the Anaheim Ducks for divisional titles in the future.

Meanwhile, in the other division, I relocated the Coyotes from Arizona to Texas. Not only does this move create another in-state rivalry, but it also gives the Coyotes new life in a state that might appreciate them.

I also pushed Vancouver to join Arizona so both divisions have two Canadian teams each. Seeing the Jets play the Canucks could form another western Canadian rivalry between these provinces.

For the old-school fans, it also would evoke memories of the playoff matches they had in the early ’90s. Depending on where the Coyotes will be relocated in Texas, it also could set up awesome matchups against Nashville and St. Louis.

With these divisional realignments, it opens the possibilities of what could happen when the playoffs arrive along with the possible rivalries forming in the future. As an Anaheim Ducks fan, even though the division would be tougher to compete I still think this would be a fun division to play in.

Who knows, we might get NBC to come to the Honda Center when the Anaheim Ducks play Seattle, Colorado or Vegas in the regular season. Plus, with Seattle joining Vegas as the new teams out west, it will be awesome to see how the other teams would fare against them.