What if the NHL Went to a Six Division Set Up in a 36 Team League? 

I am the only one to notice the Conference magnets are the wrong way round? It is like an Easter Egg THG leaves for us every now and then.

And watch each division have a sponsor, just because they can.

The nhl adopts a "battle royale" system. 100 teams enter. 1 team leaves.

I assume you sent this to Gary so he can use it in the future.

I think you're right on the money with the expansion clubs, but I just don't see why AZ and COL wouldn't be swapped here.

West needs to be organized by time zones full stop

Dude, what an in-depth vid, well done sir!

I think it'll be 9 per the four divisions. ATL goes to the Metro, Quebec City in the Atlantic, Houston into the Central and the revived Coyotes Pacific.

The division names are cool. Takes me back to when I first started watching hockey with the Campbell and Norris....

I can't imagine my Jets not playing St. louis, Chicago and Dallas. All in the same time zone.

I like more rivalry games leading to a rivalry playoffs. It’s easier to just get aware of a few teams and how you stack up against them than half the league.

The quality content put out by this man is unrivaled. The sports networks are put to shame each day

The southwest should be the Dionne Division. At a time when west coast hockey was the LA Kings, Dionne was a scoring machine. He was our first superstar.

I thought about this and came up with something similar, but prioritizing time zones in the west Pacific: VAN, SEA, SJS, LAK, ANA, VGK (splits up Vancouver and Alberta unfortunately) Mountain: CLG, EDM, WPG, SLC, COL, ARI (Winnipeg is the odd one out) Central: MIN, CHI, STL, NAS, DAL, HOU Southeast: FLA, TBL, ATL, CAR, WSH, CBJ (east is the same) Northeast: QUE, MTL, OTT, TOR, BUF, BOS Metro: NYR, NYI, NJD, PHI, PIT, DET 4x games against divisional opponents, 2x games against everyone else I also think the best playoff format is top two from each division, plus two wildcards in each conference, as divisional play is more important with this regular season format. Ultimately, I really hope they don't expand this much (though it's hard to argue with $$$). It sucks to expand the playoffs, and it sucks to make it harder to make the playoffs, either way ruining the good balance we have now. It also would ruin the balance between playing in every arena, and maintaining rivalries that there's no good way to solve without increasing the number of games (which can't happen). I don't want to see the NHL become the NFL where you only play certain teams every 4 years, and I don't want to see it become the MLB where it's impossible to watch every game.

Shouldn't the east and west magnets be flipped?

This screws Minnesota really hard.

I'm gonna try for fun Western Conference Pacific : LA, San Jose, Anaheim, Seattle, Vancouver, Vegas Center West : Calgary, Edmonton, Utah, Colorado, Winnipeg, Arizona Center East : Houston, Minnesota, Chicago, Nashville, St Louis, Dallas Eastern Conference Northeast : Quebec City, Toronto, Buffalo, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston Metropolitan : NYR, NYI, NJD, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philly Atlantic : Columbus, Detroit, Atlanta, TBL, Panthers, Canes

I hope the NHL is taking notes. ✍️

I think you nailed it especially given the subtle changes/options that you mention later on in the vieeo.

I love videos like this. I find them calming while also being interesting. Thanks, Shannon, for always putting out videos on topics that other hockey youtubers don’t typically talk about-and when they do, it’s not in your signature style (not putting down other hockey youtubers, many are fun and engaging and entertaining, but THG scratches the itch in my brain while also being those things, yknow?)

Put the conference magnets in the wrong spots haha

Now I’m expecting you to climb deeper in this rabbit hole

Love this! Nice job

This would be a nightmare as a Jets fan. So many late games!

every other year teams in other conferences host each other. 2025 New Jersey hosts the Canucks, 2026 Vancouver hosts the devils.

If the NHL were to expand to 36 teams in 6 divisons, a division of the Original 6 teams would be awesome. Maybe not the easiest in terms of geography but the inter-divisional play and rivalries would be worth it.

Fun video! It’s hard not to think of how diluted the talent could be. Thanks for the content.

Brilliant thought process

THG has a Neapolitan complex

Personally, I think that fans would like divisions better than a 2 conference setup. Being 6 or 8 points behind in your division feels better than being 18 points behind in your conference. Plus playing division rivals creates more rivalries for fans. More likely the NHL keeps things the way that they are and doesn't change anything.

36 teams. 4 divisions 9 teams each. Arizona to Pacific. Houston to Central. Atlanta to Metropolitan. Quebec to Atlantic. The 32 teams remain in their respective division. Playoffs - Division based. 1-3 automatically qualify for playoffs. 4-6 must play in a qualifying best-of-one tournament. 7-9 eliminated from playoffs and season end at the conclusion of the regular season. Qualifying tournament: 6th seed at 5th seed. Winner of that game plays at 4th seed. Winner of that game faces the 1st seed in the first round of playoffs.

why not group by timezone? seems like thats what creates more competitive advantage. 1.)CA teams + VAN, SEA, VGK 2.) Alberta teams + Utah, Colorado, AZ, and one of dallas or Houston 3.) existing central division as it is now but without colorado, AZ, and possibly Houston instead of Dallas

Put Red Wings in Central, Predators in Southeast and Washington in Metro. Feels cleaner

they have the divisions mostly divided up by time zone for a reason, Shannon. This would absolutely kill the jets and the other teams in the "northwest" because of all the crazy time changes they'd have to experience during the season. it would directly disadvantage the teams there Over the teams in the other divisions. veto

For playoffs, just make the top 2 from each division qualify. Division winners get seeds 1-3 and runners up get seeds 4-6, depending on points. And then next 2 most points as 7 and 8 seeds, they can be from same division.

I think I figured out a really good formula that makes everybody happy : 4x 5 division opponents = 20 games 3x 12 conference opponents = 36 games Okay now for the out of conference scheduling formula. Each division is paired with a division from the other conference to play 2x. The division pairings rotate every year (similar to NFL’s scheduling formula). You play the remaining out of conference teams 1x season, alternating home and away on the non pairing years, giving us: 2x 6 non conference, paired division teams = 12 games 1x 12 non conference, non paired division teams = 12 games Which gives us….. an 80 game season!!! I really think this formula makes everyone happy. Division and conference rivalries play just as often as they do now, every team plays each other at least once. And if you want to keep the 82 game format, throw in 2x additional conference, non division matchups that are legacy rivalries from the previous divisional make ups. E.g. Tampa plays Toronto and Boston an additional game.

AZ is located in the southwest US; not certain why they are in the central division. Ergo AZ to the southwest, CO to the northwest moving WInnipeg or MN to the central. This works if you take time zones under consideration, other than either Wpg or MN two hours ahead of the Pacific time zone.

4 expansion teams at once would sure make for an interesting expansion draft.

4 New NHL Teams Are Atlanta, Houston, Quebec City, And Utah With Arizona Being An NHL Team Again In 5 Years.

Awesome interesting video!

Torts just gifted the Capitals a postseason birth!! Pulled the goalie in tie game despite being eliminated by the Red Wings

Minnesota to Central Sharks to Northwest Arizona to Southwest

2:28 Also can't forget Brett Hull finished his career with Arizona

Very interesting concept

32 is enough

The magnets being backwards is hilarious to me

Loved the video! Very interesting - yeah NHL with 36 teams seems like the way the world is going.

Top 2 from each division and two wildcards from among the 3 divisions allows for 8 teams per side for a clean playoff setup.

I'd be pissed if the Wild were in a West Coast division.

I guess I hate the idea of Minnesota in the Northwest. Two opponents in the Mountain Time Zone, and two in the Pacific just doesn’t get it. Should Arizona get another team, put them out west - where they are geographically. Chicago, St.Louis, and even (yuck) Dallas should be our division rivals.

Good video. What about the conference magnets?

Thanks!

Bring back the Whalers and the Nordiques!!

Here's my ideas West - Mostly based on timezone Pacific - Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vegas, Seattle, Vancouver Sierra/Rocky - Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas City, Calgary, Edmonton Central - Houston, Dallas, Nashville, St. Louis, Minnesota, Winnipeg Could swap Winnipeg/Kansas City Eastern Conference V1 You can divy up the north east two ways and travel time can take a back seat to rivalries. Here I did OG6 division Oldtown/Metropolitan - Boston, Montreal, Toronto, New York Rangers, Detroit, Chicago Atlantic - Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, New York Islanders, Ottawa, Buffalo Southern - Florida, Tampa, Atlanta, Carolina, Washington, Columbus Could swap Washington/New Jersey if you want Penguins vs Capitals in the same division. Eastern Conference V2 Heres a 3-3 split Atlantic - Boston, New York Rangers, Montreal, New York Islanders, Buffalo, Ottawa Foundry - Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Columbus Southern - Florida, Tampa, Atlanta, Carolina, Capitals, New Jersey. When the line for the eastern conference runs through Nashville and Chicago theres its hard to put a team there. Atlanta is the easy one, after that you got Indianapolis, and then it falls of a cliff to Quebec City. It's just easier to expand west as adding 2 teams in Texas makes sense, Kansas City makes sense, Portland makes sense, Arizona/Utah make sense, New Orleans makes sense, so I think if we are going to 40 it will be 5-3 or 6-2(west-east) with how the league expands. if holding to 36 it makes sense to go 3-1 west-east.

You do a great job

Tbh i find rivalry's are more formed in the playoffs rather than the regular season. Like the canucks and blackhawks playoff history or toronto boston

Original 6 division: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, NY Rangers, Toronto Canadian/North division: Quebec City, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver Pacific division: Anaheim, Arizona, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Vegas Central division: Utah, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Minnesota South division: Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Washington Atlantic division: NY Islanders, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Columbus

No no no Shannon, Vancouver should be in the southeast division! 🤭

This can definitely work I like this format of 6 divisions (3 divisions in both conferences) & 2 conferences

Love THG rabbit holes

The idea of the NHL expanding beyond 32 teams is just ludicrous. They are definitely interested in quantity, not quality.

Nashville to southeast , Detroit to central and Washington to metro and it's perfect

Love it!!!

Nice effort. I mostly agree

Detroit should be with Buff, Tor, Mtl, Ott, and Que and rename it Howe. Boston should be in the Orr division with Isles, NYR, Pitt, Philly, and NJ.

Expansion, especially in the places the NHL is talking about, will just further water down the league.

Great job .

In the second scueduling option, I think you could also take a page out of the NFL's book to get the number of games up to 82. You could have 2 additional games, each against a team in the same conference who had the same division standing as you. So for example: if the division standings were just as shown on the board, then Calgary would play Dallas and Utah 3 times in the following season, as opposed to just twice.

This is fun Shannon. But i agree with your idea of going to just two conferences.

I like what you've got, but I'd move Minnesota to the Central, Arizona to the Southwest, and Utah to the Northwest, just to keep the time zone changes down. But I like it!

Agree with your thoughts on 6 divisions in a 36-team league and I was thinking the same to get to an expanded playoffs. I was against the idea at first, but Elliotte Friedman was very insistent that because the NHL is more gate-driven than other pro sports, expanded playoffs are a necessity. I think that in a 36-team league, 24 teams make the playoffs. The top team in each conference get a bye in a first round with one wild card, and the remaining of the top 4 in each division enter a first round best of 5 series. The winning teams in the first round face the bye teams in the second round. A team would have to win either 16 or 19 games to win the Stanley Cup, but the regular season would be shortened by 2 games to 80. Thanks for all you do here and cheers

This is GREAT!

I actually love this, it probably won't happen but if it does I'm all in for it.

As someone who is from Georgia, the general feel from most around here is that the team should be called the Thrashers, and I honestly think that's what they'll go with. The Phoenix, Firebirds or Knights are the only other options I see, BUT the Knights already exist in the NHL, the Phoenix sounds weird especially if the Coyotes come back and the Firebirds doesn't sound as good as Thrashers to me.

I think you’re spot on

I’d love to see more ephasis on rivarlies. Sadly with expansion I think we move further from that rather than closer.

Cool idea

Even with Chicago being in the central time zone, the idea of having an Origins division with the original 6 I think is a banger that could be worth it. Just make their home divisional games start at 7:00 local time. Even with Detroit not being geographically close to Montreal, when teams are flying for their travel, there isn’t a big difference between a 1:35 flight to Philly or a 1:05 flight to Pittsburg and a 1:50 flight to Montreal.

As an Avs fan living in CST who has a difficult time staying up past 10:30, this would make me cry

While I agree with the East, I am pretty sure the Arizona team will not want to be in with the Central Time zone because they are effectively in the Pacific Time zone from March until November. Here is my suggestion for three 6 team divisions in the Western Conference. Time zones in parenthesis. Arizona is (M/P) because of the uniqueness of their situation. (Note: Division Names are placeholders, suggestions welcome) PACIFIC DIVISION Vegas (P) Los Angeles (P) San Jose (P) Anaheim (P) Vancouver (P) Seattle (P) MOUNTAIN DIVISION Utah (M) Colorado (M) Arizona (M/P) Calgary (M) Edmonton (M) Winnipeg (C) (Note: Some team from the Central Time zone had to be added here) CENTRAL DIVISION Dallas (C) Houston (C) Nashville (C) Chicago (C) St Louis (C) Minnesota (C)

If you do 5 games against division, 3 games against conference, and 1 against league you end up with a good 84 games, using this division format. For playoffs, run the division leader in the first 3 seeds ranked by points. The division runner ups take the battle with the leaders in reverse order of points (2nd worst record plays 1st best, 2nd middle record plays 1st middle record, 2nd best plays 1st worst), then seed wild cards based on conference records against each other

I tried doing this yesterday, with the same 4 expansion teams. My 3 eastern divisions were the same as yours, except I had Nashville instead of Columbus in the Southeast (Columbus replaced Nashville as the eastern team stuck in the Western Conference; I didn't think about time zones). I had the 3 California teams, Vegas, Seattle, and Vancouver in a "Pacific" division, which worked, but the other 2 western divisions were a bit of a mess. I like your western divisions better, although I probably would swap Arizona and Colorado.

"Seattle has to be in the same division as Vancouver from a travel perspective." Adds Minnesota seconds later. Flight distances: Seattle to Canucks: ~120 miles Seattle to Flames: ~440 miles Seattle to Oilers: ~560 miles Seattle to Utah: ~700 miles Seattle to Sharks: ~700 miles Seattle to Golden Knights: ~880 miles Seattle to Kings: ~960 miles Seattle to Ducks: ~980 miles Seattle to Avalanche: ~1000 miles Seattle to Phoenix: ~1100 miles Seattle to Jets: ~1150 miles Seattle to North Stars (I mean, Wild): ~1400 miles Denver to Minneapolis: ~700 miles Salt Lake City to Minneapolis: ~1000 miles Limiting travel, are we? Putting Minnesota in a division with Seattle and Vancouver increases travel for all three. West Division: Seattle Vancouver San Jose Los Angeles Anaheim Vegas Midwest Division: Colorado Utah Arizona Calgary Edmonton Winnipeg Central Division: Minnesota Dallas Houston Nashville Chicago St. Louis

For the west, they should keep it (mostly) in line with time zones: Pacific = Vancouver, Seattle, SJ, LA, Anaheim, and Vegas Mountain = Edmonton, Calgary, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Winnipeg (Winnipeg would be the only one outside of their time zone; but would get to be in a division with 2 Canadian teams) Central = Minnesota, Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis, Dallas, & Houston For the east, I think they'd need to give every team at least one 'assigned local rival' (Ideally historic, but basically a short drive that the networks would make into a thing and air every year; this is basically because a team like Columbus needs someone close by; and in your set up, I don't think Washington would fit that role). North = Toronto-Buffalo, Montreal-Boston, & Ottawa-Quebec Metro = NYR-NYI, NJ-Philly, & Washington-Pittsburgh South = Tampa-Florida, Atlanta-Carolina, & Detroit-Columbus Splitting it this way would be ideal for time zones, and I hope would also give natural internal rivals

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but for most of the hockey season Arizona is effectively in the Pacific time zone since they don't observe DST.

Hear me out: 4 x 5 div teams = 20. 3 x 12 conference teams = 36 1 x 18 opposite conference teams = 18 games. 74 games so far. 8 “floater” games in the opposite conference. Decided by last years’s standings, best rivalries, or rotating schedule. Playoffs: 2 division winners each, 2-3 wild card teams per conference.

I was just doing this exact thing on Excel the other night lmao! I divisions were almost exact same except I switched Washington and Detroit cuz I felt you have to put Washington with Pittsburgh and Philly...

I was a big fan of the old playoff format, particularly because it fostered playoff meetings by happenstance-which I think is the way it should be…let rivalries be born and happen naturally!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

East demands ONE timezone. West: Laughs while cursing in THREE

I am soooo excited about this...more expansion...fantastic idea especially for Georgia which is just screaming for a hockey team, who wouldn't want to see hockey when the temperature is 97 and the humidity 99, can't wait for the first outdoor game there. Hopefully the league will expand to Idaho and New Mexico, I will personally fly to Boise to witness the historic first game between the Idaho Potatoheads and the New Mexico Roadrunners....epic 😂.

I like the idea of naming the divisions after significant players who may have spent some meaningful time with one or multiple teams.

I drew up something similar when I've found out elsewhere that LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke is exploring a San Diego franchise. I've factored out Atlanta because of no potential owner identified at the moment. Gretzky: VAN, SEA, SJ, LA, ANA, SD* Hart: VGK, AZ*, SLC, COL, CAL, EDM Norris: WPG, MN, CHI, STL, DET, CLB Bettman: NSH, CAR, TB, FL, DAL, HOU* Adams: BUF, TOR, OTT, MTL, QUE*, BOS Patrick: NYR, NYI, NJ, PHL, PIT, WSH I have kept your scheduling mechanism for a relatively clean 80 game schedule. For the playoffs, teams will be seeded by division champions obtaining the first six seeds, then the remaining ten by season record.

As a Blue Jackets fan, this puts us in a division without either team we consider a rival (Red Wings, Penguins).

great idea

Change: Move Colorado to the Central and AZ to the Southwest. The NHL needs a proper blood rivalry down there with Utah-Vegas-LA-AZ all wanting to beat each other. Move Detroit back to the Western Conference. Avalanche, Chicago, St Louis and Detroit in the same division? There will be blood. Then, move Nashville to the Southeast and Washington to the Metropolitan.

i would want pittsburgh and washington together. that rivalry still holds up

any chance with divisions of 6 we just have an original six division and work around that? kinda makes no sense but could be beautiful

If you mean adding a round to the playoffs - 16 teams per conference works well as it will also make the draft lottery much smaller. That would make a 4 team draft lottery and the rest of the teams would enter the draft following the current rules of elimination. It would also increase team revenues with playoff games. The expansion of 4 teams would help to deal with the rise in salaries as the costs would be absorbed over 36 teams instead of 32. Based on that schedule, 2 fewer games per team allows for a best of 5 1st round.

Cincinnati and Atlanta were in the NL West with Houston when there were only two divisions.

I just wish they would go back to the old 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 playoff format-I was elated to see that the Eastern Conference seeds corresponded this year but I feel like they should go back to it full time…it just made sense on paper and kept the postseason matchups fair and clean! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻