Tweaks could be made to the proposed divisional re-alignment as not all teams are happy
Sportsnet: The NHL may be looking to make some adjustments to their proposed divisional re-alignment for the 2020-21 NHL season. Issues are that a central time zone team would have to play in the pacific zone, meaning that would have a later start time for every road game, Two teams could be moved to the pacific instead of one.
“What happened here is that I think what they’re gonna do is have two teams closer together go to the West and I think that’ll be Minnesota and St. Louis. I think they’ll both go in the Pacific Division and Dallas will end up in the Central,” Elliotte Friedman said on Sportsnet 590 The FAN’s Lead Off on Friday.
“I think Minnesota’s concern was they didn’t want to be there alone with nobody close to them. St. Louis was more willing to do it and now I think it’s going to be St. Louis and Minnesota together.”
Start times when a Pacific team plays and Central could be moved up an hour according to Friedman.
“The thing that’s going to be different about this year is I think one of the considerations the league is saying is if you’re concerned about your games starting too late at night, because there’s going to be no fans at the games in California, how do you feel if we say, ‘OK you’re going to have 25 or so games out there and instead of starting them at what would be 10 Eastern … what if we start them a little earlier? Like we start them at nine Eastern, which would be eight at those two time zones, and I think those two teams (St. Louis and Minnesota) are amenable to that.”
TSN: Some NHL owners are not happy when they received a copy of what the divisional alignment could look like next season according to Darren Dreger.
** NHLrumors.com transcription
“Right, when the information leaked out earlier this week, for many that was probably the first time that they saw what the divisions were going to look like, and what re-alignment could be in terms of the reality. Now, everything is subject to change. I think we’ve learned that through this process, and each individual NHL club has specific needs.
If you look at time zones, well, teams would prefer to play in their time zone and that’s so their fans have the luxury of tuning in on any given game at a time that they are accustomed to.
I don’t think we’re going to see a full overall of what’s been speculated here, Gino. I think you could see a minor tweak, maybe Minnesota and Dallas swap spots. I know Dallas would like to stay in their time zone but there are also teams that like the idea of moving into a different division.
Who wouldn’t want to play in the Pacific division? If Minnesota and Dallas make that change, Minnesota and Dallas would play in Arizona. They’ll get to play in Vegas. They’ll spend time in California. When you’re playing back-to-backs in the same cities on any given trip, that’s not a bad thing.”