Player, league dispute nixes realignment
The NHL Players Association had proposed a wild-card playoff during the first round as a way to address its concern about uneven conferences in the NHL’S proposed realignment.
That tidbit was part of an email, obtained by USA TODAY, from NHLPA general counsel Don Zavelo to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly explaining why the players wouldn’t sign off on realignment.
Lacking player consent, the NHL pulled the four-conference alignment and will stick with the current six-division setup for the 2012-13 season.
Under the realignment approved in December by the NHL board of governors, two conferences had eight teams and two had seven. The top four teams in each conference made the postseason field.
The uneven split is not usual. From 1981-82 to 1990-91, when the top four division teams made the playoffs, there were three divisions of five teams and one of six. The NHLPA thought the proposed realignment would create an “unfair disparity” in playoff opportunities.
“As we have said on many occasions, there are several ways to resolve this issue, including the incorporation of ‘wild-card’ teams into round one without adding any additional games,” Zavelo wrote to Daly. “We have offered to explore these options with you in order to find a way through, but, at least to date, the league has ruled out the possibility of amending its proposal or otherwise revisiting the matter.”
The players also thought they didn’t have enough information on the impact of travel.
“We have explained throughout this process,” Zavelo wrote, “that only a draft leaguewide schedule would allow players to meaningfully evaluate the potential travel impact of the proposal and determine whether it would be more or less burdensome and unbalanced.”
Daly said the league provided multiple travel analyses.
“The bottom line is until you can actually make a schedule, you can’t know what each club’s travel is going to be,” Daly told USA TODAY. “We can’t provide something that doesn’t exist. We told them what we know for certain is that travel in the Central will be significantly lessened. Travel in the conference with the two Florida teams and Northeast teams will be increased. And the other two conferences will be marginally affected. But we also told them that (scheduling guru Steve Hatze-petros) says that the new matrix created opportunities for greater scheduling efficiency. There is no meaningful travel impact.”
The NHLPA offered Friday to continue talks, but Daly said it was too late. “The deadline didn’t come out of thin air,” Daly said. “We actually asked for an answer by Tuesday and extended several days to accommodate further discussion.”