Welcome Back, NHL...

The NHL is finally getting back to being a hockey league instead of a locked out league. In a few short days, games will count, and it will be a sprint of a season where every game could have playoff atmosphere with so few games being played. It should be an exciting season for NHL fans.

Even more so, fans like me of the Minnesota Wild are really wound up about the season after it's off-season acquisitions. In any normal year, adding two players like Torrey Mitchell and Zenon Konopka would be a very nice off-season. Of course, the Wild did not stop there and added a couple of guys named Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Those last two additions have made the Wild a favorite to play for the Stanley Cup this year. It's been a long time since the State of Hockey has seen playoff hockey, much less a chance to chase for the cup. So, let's play hockey, shell we?

OK, now onto a few changes the league could make to improve things. There is already talk that the league will be changing up the divisions and going with a 4-conference lineup as opposed to the current 6 divisions. I truly love this decision and am very much looking forward to it. If it goes through, each team would play 2 games against the teams not in their conference. That change alone is excellent as right now teams can go years without playing each other, but with this change every team will visit ever arena every season. And as a Wild fan, it also means we don't have to stay up for 9 PM start times 20 times a year as our conference will feature 7 other teams that are in our time-zone as opposed to playing many games in places like Vancouver, Calgary, and San Jose. Now, with this realignment plan, here are the other changes I would make:

Move the Phoenix Coyotes to Seattle.

Move the Florida Panthers to Portland.

And, (drum roll please) move the New York Islanders to Toronto.

I believe these relocated teams will help strengthen the league. No one is going to watch hockey in Phoenix. And yes, Seattle isn't in a hockey hotbed, but it is in a northern climate, and they would make an immediate rival in the Vancouver Canucks. The same reasoning can work for moving Florida to Portland. Portland may be a smaller city, but I don't see any possible way Miami has more hockey fans than Portland would. And it would get another team west in a league where most of the teams are east of Ohio. In the final move, yes, I am stating to move a team out of New York. The Islanders don't draw fans. And while New York is substantially bigger than Toronto, Toronto has enough hockey fans to support two teams. Can you say the same thing as New York? I don't think so.

Those moves could leave the four conferences looking like this:
Conference A: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Portland, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver.

Conference B: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, and Winnipeg.

Conference C: Boston, Buffalo, Columbus, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Toronto.

Conference D: Carolina, New Jersey, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and Washington.

That's my plan. And I'm sticking to it. Welcome back NHL. I can't wait for Saturday.