NHL Board of Governors approves realignment; Wings in new division

By Michael Caples – 

It’s official – the Wings will have some new division and conference foes.

The NHL announced today that their board of governors have approved the realignment proposal, which makes for two new conferences – one with 14 teams, and one with 16 teams.

The Red Wings will now be in the Eastern Conference, and a division (to be named later) that features the following teams:

• Boston
• Buffalo
• Detroit
• Florida
• Montreal
• Ottawa
• Tampa Bay
• Toronto

Well first off, on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch, thank you to Gary Bettman and the board of governors and the NHLPA for putting this move together. We’re obviously thrilled, and I’m speaking on behalf of our organization and I’m sure all, or most, of Red Wings fans. Thrilled that we’re going back to the Eastern Conference, for a lot of reasons. Obviously we’re an Eastern Conference city, moving to a Eastern Conference division and conference is going to make many more of our road games on in prime-time. Excited to move into the division that we’re moving into, to renew rivalries with Boston, Toronto and Montreal that go back to the beginning of this league, and building and growing rivalries with Buffalo and Ottawa and Tampa Bay and Florida. This is a great day for the Detroit Red Wings. Obviously disappointed, on one sense we’ve had some great rivalries with some teams in the Western Conference, one of the things that was very important to us was the matrix that had a home-and-home with every team in your league outside the division or conference. Even though we’re heading East, we’re thrilled that we’re going to play all the teams in the Western Conference, home-and-home, and that they all come into our building once and we go to their building once. I think the whole package that’s put together with the relocations, the moves, the matrix, the playoff format, it’s an exciting time for the National Hockey League.