European Expansion?

So, there was a spark from Bill Daly in a Vancouver press conference when he suggested that European expansion of the NHL is a possibility.

From the NHL brass, who never like to speculate on anything, thats huge.

The logistics are the biggest pain to hammer out, but I think it's certainly a serious thought by the NHL, and it has nothing to do with their own league.  The KHL, Russia's pro league, is growing west, and accepting teams from Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, Croatia, etc.  That's nice for them.  But next season, they'll get a Finnish team, and one of the more popular teams in Finland, if not Europe.  This alarms the NHL.  If the KHL can take away the players from the bigger European markets like Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic and Slovakia, the NHL is in trouble.

The quality of the game will suffer, as many of today's stars are in fact European.  The talent pool will be diminished, and the on-ice product may become inferior to that of the KHL.

Now, I'm not pressing the panic button yet, as there is many "ifs" there.  But its an issue the NHL should be concerned about.

So there begins the topic of European expansion.  The deal is, there has to be enough teams in Europe, so the teams don't have to play all (or even most) of their games in North America.  And the system has to be fair to the North American teams so they don't have to travel as much.

So here's my take on it.  Have 10 European teams, and assume 30 NHL teams.  We can divide this up into 4 divisions; 3 from NA and 1 European.

West Division: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Minnesota, Winnipeg, San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, Colorado

Central Division: Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, Carolina, Washington, Tampa Bay, Florida

East Division: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey

Europe Division: <10 European teams>

Now, with all of these extra teams, a red flag would go up on the extra amount of games being played a year.  But if we have a rotating schedule of teams playing outside their division, travel can be equal in the long run, and games can be minimized.

For example:

Year One:

West teams play 4 games against own division opponents (36 games)

play 1 road game against Central division opponents (10 games)

play 1 home game against East division opponents (10 games)

play home-and-away against Europe division opponents (20 games)

= 76 games 

Central teams play 4 games against own division opponents (36 games)

play 1 road game against Europe division opponents (10 games)

play 1 home game against West division opponents (10 games)

play home-and-away against East division opponents (20 games)

= 76 games

East teams play 4 games against own division opponents (36 games)

play 1 road game against West division opponents (10 games)

play 1 home game against Europe division opponents (10 games)

play home-and-away against Central division opponents (20 games)

= 76 games

Europe teams play 4 games against own division opponents (36 games)

play 1 road game against East division opponents (10 games)

play 1 home game against Central division opponents (10 games)

play home-and-away against West division opponents (20 games)

= 76 games

And the teams can rotate the divisions they play against each year.  

In this format, every team in the league has a chance to play every other team at least once every year, and this will help exposure to the NHL game in Europe.  The total amount of games is less than a full season now, which is something the NHL has been trying to do for a while (and as seen by the lockout, is a good idea).  North American teams will play no more than 10 games in Europe per season (excluding playoffs), while European teams will play 20 of their 76 games in North America.

If the clubs have solid financial backing from the get go, those aren't terrible numbers.  I think this is a fully plausible idea.

Playoffs will be an interesting scenario.  We tend to keep with the 7-game series in hockey here in North America, while Europe likes to go with groups and knock-out games, like in soccer.  So we might be able to have both, while promoting the game further in Europe.

Playoffs:

Round 1:

The top 4 teams in each division make the playoffs.  1st in the West plays 4th from the West, 2nd in the West plays 3rd in the West.  This is continued for all divisions.

Round 2:

Naturally, the 2 winners in each division will play for the division championship, leaving 1 team per division remaining.

Round 3:

This is where is gets interesting.  It's not fair to do "conference" finals, since one North American team and the European team would have a ton of travel to do.  

So how about something new, something used in European championships.  The 4 division champions will meet in one location (either predetermined, or the location of the European champion for the sake of promotion), and play a round-robin format to decide who makes it to the Stanley Cup Finals.  

There are tons of ways this could work, either the top 2 after 3 games each make it to the final, or 1st place meets the winner of a one-game knockout between 2nd and 3rd (Memorial Cup style), or however it would work the best.  This insures that less playoff games are played, but the format is changed to something more European, and all of the top teams have to go through each other to get to the finals, something I think the playoffs are missing as of now.

The only two weaknesses of this are, a) that's a full round of hockey that 3 playoff teams wont get ticket revenue for.  This sounds minor, but big money teams might have a problem with that lost revenue.  And b), the two teams left in the final could be very far apart for the finals.  This is commonly a problem anyway, since a western team always plays an eastern team for the Cup, so this isn't exactly a dramatic downfall.  Still, an L.A.-Stockholm final would be a pain.  

As far as TV revenue goes, there are usually between 8-14 games in the conference final round.  With this format, there will be 6-7 (unless a double round-robin is used, where it would be 12-13), so although there could be less games, its not really too bad.  And again, you'll get to see all 4 champions play one another, which keeps it exciting (why the Memorial Cup does so well).

Round 4: Stanley Cup Finals

This can go back to the 7-game series, with one minor switch:  If it so happens that a European team is in the Final, the order of games will go from 2-2-1-1-1 to 2-3-2.  This is done in basketball to reduce travel, and is a great idea.  Cities still get the chance to hoist the cup twice in their own building.

So when thinking about this concept, I think it is an absolutely plausible idea, if enough European teams with capital are on board to support it.  Travel will be more of a burden, but shared, and not as bad as if a few European teams played in a North American division.  This will give a chance for the NHL to grow, and compete with the ever-growing KHL.  I'd love your comments on this, as it is a very out there idea.