So long ATL, hello Winnipeg!

It's finally happened, Winnipeg tentatively has a team once again. The move is not official until the sale and relocation has been approved by the owners, but I'm pretty sure it's going to happen. They will most likely be renamed the Jets since the NHL owns the name and would probably give it to them if they asked. In this case, the Phoenix Coyotes and relocated Atlanta Thrashers would share the history, much like how the present day Baltimore Ravens pay tribute to the Colts who left the city as well as several other teams in other sports. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'll probably come back tomorrow and post some. In any case, right now the division alignments are screwed. The NHL is not going to change the divisions for the upcoming season, and as a result, my Washington Capitals are going to Winnipeg (about 1500 miles) 3 times a year, while the Jets are going to be traveling into the Southeast division for a total of 12 games. Now, obviously, this doesn't make any sense. Why won't the NHL re-align? Well, the problem is that the Phoenix Coyotes are also at risk to be moved out of the south. As a result, re-aligning the divisions in back to back years would be a mess and make the NHL look bad. Although our fans might be upset, it actually looks kind of ridiculous if teams are swapping divisions every year. With Winnipeg taking the Coyotes, odds are Phoenix might end up moving to Ontario or Quebec or some random city that used to have a hockey team (Kansas City anyone?) Regardless, here's how it looks now and how it probably will look after the 2011-2012 season.

Current	Proposed
Atlantic	Atlantic
New Jersey Devils	New Jersey Devils
New York Islanders	New York Islanders
New York Rangers	New York Rangers
Philadelphia Flyers	Philadelphia Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins	Pittsburgh Penguins
Northeast	Northeast
Boston Bruins	Boston Bruins
Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo Sabres
Montreal Canadiens	Montreal Canadiens
Ottawa Senators	Ottawa Senators
Toronto Maple Leafs	Toronto Maple Leafs
Southeast	Southeast
Carolina Hurricanes	Carolina Hurricanes
Florida Panthers	Florida Panthers
Tampa Bay Lightning	Nashville Predators
Washington Capitals	Tampa Bay Lightning
Winnipeg Jets?	Washington Capitals
Central	Central
Chicago Blackhawks	Chicago Blackhawks
Columbus Blue Jackets	Columbus Blue Jackets
Detroit Red Wings	Detroit Red Wings
Nashville Predators	Minnesota Wild
St. Louis Blues	St. Louis Blues
Northwest	Northwest
Calgary Flames	Calgary Flames
Colorado Avalanche	Colorado Avalanche
Edmonton Oilers	Edmonton Oilers
Minnesota Wild	Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks	Winnipeg Jets?
Pacific	Pacific
Anaheim Ducks	Anaheim Ducks
Dallas Stars	Dallas Stars
Los Angeles Kings	Los Angeles Kings
Phoenix Coyotes	Phoenix Coyotes
San Jose Sharks	San Jose Sharks

Why this works...
You move Nashville into the Southeast where it is geographically, the closest to replacing Atlanta. You move Minnesota to the Central division where MLB and NFL rivalries can extend to NHL rivalries. Then finally, you put Winnipeg in a division with three other Canadian teams and have them play each other 6 times a year. 24 games between Canadian teams in the Western Conference and 18 in the Eastern Conference, so all of Canada can get their fix of NHL hockey. I put Jets with a ? because I don't know what their actual team name will be. Ironically, I was toying around with this idea 2 years ago of what would happen if the NHL expanded to 36 teams with one of the expansion franchises being the Winnipeg Jets... perhaps I'll put that up sometime.