AUSTIN, Texas – It appears the first step towards my vision of the NHL going forward took place today with the potential sale of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg interests.
The second step is to procure a club for Quebec City. The third and final step is to grant an expansion team(s) to a city in the United States. The Quebec City club could be an established team or an expansion club. If it’s an established team then two expansion clubs would be needed.
The structure of the league would be 32 teams which would form four eight-team divisions.
The playoff system should be the top four clubs in each division. With the addition of Winnipeg and Quebec one of the eight team divisions would be all-Canadian. The playoffs would be played within the division until the conference finals.
Regular season play would be division-centric, six games versus each team in the division each year, two games, one home and one away against two of the other divisions and one game against all the teams in the other division for a total of 82 games.
The last month or so of the season would be reserved for divisional play. Special occasions, such as opening day, would feature rivalry games. Boxing Day and Hockey Day in Canada would be all-Canadian games.
The other divisions would be formed depending on the geographic location of the expansion team(s).
Winnipeg Snapshots
Winnipeg Jets is the name the Thrashers should change to. Any other name different than the Jets would be a shame and could be interpreted as a “money-grab”. The colors should remain the same, but the club should update the logo with the old logo being used as the third jersey.
Contact Tom.Schettino@prohockeynews.com
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