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.
