Mapping the NHL Realignment

Recently, the NHL and NHLPA have come to an agreement for realigning the conferences and divisions for the 2013-2014 season. This move has been spurred by the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers franchise to Winnipeg in 2011, becoming the Jets. Due to the proximity to the start of the season, the Jets were simply placed in the Southeast division for the 2011-2012 season. Due to the lockout, other items ruled the agenda, and a more appropriate division for the Jets was put on the back-burner.

Here, I'll take a look at maps of the newly proposed conferences and divisions, and look at changes in the within-conference and within-division travel distances, which I term links.

This first map shows the existing and proposed conference links.

On the left are the links from the existing conference alignment, and on the right the new alignment. Two major differences emerge. First, Winnipeg moves from the East to the West. This is a logical move, as Winnipeg is the in the central timezone, while all Eastern teams are in the eastern timezone. Second, Columbus and Detroit move from the West to the East. This move has been advocated for some time, as both cities are located in the eastern time zone. However, this change results in a competitive unbalance as the new Western conference alignment has 14 teams compared to 16 in the East.

How does the realignment affect travel distances? In the existing alignment the average link distance in the East is 1028 km and 1920 km in the West. In the new alignment we see both these values decrease, East: 855 km, West: 1842 km. Inevitably, there remains a travel advantage to being in the Eastern conference.

Now, lets take a look at changes to the Division structure.

On the left we have the 6 division format in the existing alignment, and on the right the 4 division format in the new alignment. It is clear to see the inappropriateness of Winnipeg in the Southeast division in the existing algnment, as Winnipeg is closer to all teams in any of the Central, Northeast, or Atlantic divisions, than any other team in the Southeast. The new alignment, features the rather unusual Central division, where the two Florida teams are included with the three Canadian teams (Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa) and Boston. Geographically, this may not make a lot of sense, but perhaps is motivated by the strong Canadian fan base in Florida from travelling snowbirds.

Again, what are the average within-division link distances?
Atlantic: 249 km
Northeast: 437 km
Southeast: 1654 km
Central: 547 km
Northwest: 1364 km
Pacific: 1174 km

In the old alignment we had some noticeable inequalities. Clearly, the Southeast division had some problematic travel requirements, however not that much different from that of the Northwest.

In the new alignment?
Atlantic: 439 km
Central: 1186 km
Mid-West: 1145 km
Pacific: 1364 km

Here we see a relatively even distribution of travel distances in three of the divisions, but the Atlantic division (containing the teams from the Eastern seaboard) has a much lower average link distance.

Overall, the proposed realignment is designed to ease travel burdens associated with teams like Winnipeg, Detroit, and Columbus, and it appears to do so.


Notes: Links were defined as the great-circle path connecting the two cities. Maps were created using the Lambert Conformal Conic projection. Data on city locations and the background polygons were obtained from Natural Earth, and the analysis and maps was done using the statistical software R.