{coyotes} NHL realignment approved by board of governors

 

National Hockey League realignment is officially a reality.

The NHL's board of governors voted in favour of the revamped conference and division alignment via fax Monday.

The league had already been given the go-ahead from NHLPA chief Donald Fehr, so realignment will be in place for the 2013-14 season.

Fehr signed off on the plan after discussions with the union's executive board and said the realignment issue will be "re-evaluated following the 2014-15 season."

No official details of the changes have been released by the NHL, but it is widely believed that teams such as Detroit and Columbus will be put into more travel-friendly divisions in the Eastern time zone, and the Winnipeg Jets — formerly the Atlanta Thrashers — will leave the Southeast Division for a spot in the Western Conference.

Up until now, there has been an even split of teams with 15 in each conference. Under the new plan, the East will have 16 clubs in it — making playoff qualification a bit tougher.

The two divisions out West will contain seven teams each. The East divisions will both contain eight.

Each conference will still have eight teams in the playoffs but the setup will be slightly different.

Instead of the current system, under which the top eight teams in each conference make the playoffs, the new plan will award spots to the top three teams in each division along with the next two teams with the best records as wild cards.

"It will definitely be a change," Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader said last week. "The benefit will be less travel. The disadvantage is 16 teams in the East — so harder for a playoff spot. It's one of those things that you kind of take the pros and the cons, and it's part of the deal.

"It's something that'll be different, so we'll give it a couple years and see how it goes."

Atlantic Division: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York's Rangers and Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington.

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

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

Pacific Division: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver.

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