Yup...the Yotes will move to the central division with Minnesota, Chicago and Winnipeg. Because, of course you want them in a division with teams that are 1,500+ miles away instead of with teams that are less than 400 miles away!
Remind me again how far Phoenix is from Edmonton, Calgary, or Vancouver? Not every division can be a geographically convenient as the Metro.
This. The West has always been more spread out than the East. And let’s not forget that the two Florida teams are in the same division as the three Eastern Canadian teams as well as Boston, Buffalo, and Detroit, all six teams being well over 1,000 miles away from Tampa and Miami.
Having only four divisions for 32 teams is dumb. Go back to the six division format:
Western ConferencePacific Division: Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, Vegas, San Jose
Northwest Division: Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg
Central Division: Colorado, Dallas, St. Louis, Nashville, Chicago, Minnesota
You could, in theory, put Colorado into any of the three divisions in the west, and putting Colorado into the Northwest Division and Winnipeg into the Central might be better.
Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division: Tampa, Miami, Carolina, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
Great Lakes Division: Columbus, Detroit, Toronto, Buffalo, Ottawa
Northeast Division: Montreal, Boston, NYI, NYR, New Jersey
From a geographic point of view, Pittsburgh makes more sense in the Great Lakes Division, but I put it in the Atlantic to preserve the divisional/in-state rivalry with Philly.