The soap opera that is the Arizona Coyotes franchise hit a new high this week. As most hockey fans are aware, the Coyotes are currently playing out of a miniature college hockey arena, and their history in the NHL hinges on an incompetent ownership group winning a land auction in north Phoenix this coming June.
By all accounts, the Coyotes franchise is a complete disaster.
All it would take is them losing this auction to force the hands of the NHL and have the team relocated.
And, the NHL is well aware of this. Which is why, this week, it was reported that the NHL is planning on two scenarios for the league next season.
The first scenario sees the Coyotes win the land auction, and turn it into an arena district for the Coyotes to inhabit for decades to come.
The second scenario—the one that is becoming increasingly likely—sees the Coyotes lose the land auction, and the NHL relocate the franchise to Salt Lake City, Utah.
How could Salt Lake City’s NHL team impact the Flames?
Whenever new cities get teams, the question of division alignment comes into question. Of course, it’s easiest to just keep everything the same and simply swap in the new team with the old one, but as we saw when the Thrashers moved from Atlanta to become the Winnipeg Jets 2.0, it’s probably better to use expansion and/or relocation as an opportunity to do some spring cleaning.
As such, with the feeling that there is a high chance the NHL could play in Utah as soon as next season, rumours are starting to flow about divisional realignment, and that could impact the Flames heavily.
Currently, the NHL’s map looks like this:
The Pacific Division that we’re all familiar with features the Flames’ and Oilers’ storied Battle of Alberta rivalry, and an additional Canadian rivalry with the Canucks. When the Kraken joined the league, the Coyotes shifted out of the Pacific and into the Central Division, which was the only change resulting from the expansion.
Rumours are swirling that if Utah gets a team, the NHL will prefer to keep the trio of Colorado, Vegas, and Salt Lake City together. To do that, there needs to be some kind of movement, because Vegas is in the Pacific, and Arizona and Colorado are in the Central.
The prevailing speculation is that instead of Vegas shifting out of the Pacific, Colorado and Salt Lake City would shift into the Pacific, and the two Alberta teams would shift into the Central.
The rumoured divisional realignment
Here’s what the NHL divisional map would look like in this situation.
If the NHL does want to keep that trio of teams together, it would make sense to move Colorado and Salt Lake City into the Pacific with Vegas and shift the two Alberta teams out.
Trying to move Vegas into the Central on its own would create an impossible map to manage.
A smarter, less likely option
This talk of realignment has prompted fans to come up with other, smarter ways to realign the NHL. This is my current favourite that truly makes the most sense when considering geography, history, and travel.
This format has eight divisions with four teams each, all geographically close, rivalries intact, and common sense all around. This one doesn’t have Vegas with Salt Lake City and Colorado, but it would be a ton of fun.
The most likely scenario is that the NHL just swaps Salt Lake City for Arizona, but with the potential of realignment, Flames fans should be aware that changes could be coming.
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