Re-Alignment Standings

If you wanna see the current real standings, go to NHL Playoff Standings. But if you're curious how things would look under next season's realignment, keep reading.
Obviously these standings must be taken with a grain of salt because teams will be playing different opposition next season, but they are somewhat interesting anyway! The teams with asterisks are playoff teams under the new format.


Pacific
1) Anaheim (39 pts in 26 games)*
2) Los Angeles (28 pts in 23 games; 12 ROW)*
3) Vancouver (28 pts in 24 games, 9 ROW)*
4) San Jose (28 pts in 24 games; 7 ROW)*
5) Phoenix (27 pts in 25 games)*
6) Edmonton (23 pts in 25 games)
7) Calgary (22 pts in 23 games)

Central
1) Chicago (45 pts in 26 games)*
2) St. Louis (28 pts in 24 games; 11 ROW)*
3) Minnesota (28 pts in 24 games; 10 ROW)*
4) Dallas (26 pts in 24 games)
5) Winnipeg (26 pts in 25 games; 12 ROW)
6) Nashville (26 pts in 25 games; 8 ROW)
7) Colorado (24 pts in 24 games)

Phoenix is currently a playoff team because of the Wild Card but Dallas would have a game in hand to pass them.

Atlantic
1) Pittsburgh (36 pts in 26 games)*
2) Carolina (29 pts in 24 games)*
3) New Jersey (29 pts in 26 games)*
4) Rangers (28 pts in 24 games)
5) Islanders (25 pts in 26 games)
6) Philadelphia (25 pts in 27 games)
7) Columbus (24 pts in 26 games)
8) Washington (21 pts in 24 games)

Northeast
1) Montreal (38 pts in 26 games)*
2) Boston (35 pts in 22 games)*
3) Toronto (31 pts in 26 games)*
4) Ottawa (30 pts in 25 games)*
5) Detroit (29 pts in 26 games)*
6) Tampa Bay (21 pts in 25 games)
7) Buffalo (21 pts in 26 games)
8) Florida  (20 pts in 26 games)

Detroit is the Wild Card in the East but the Rangers have two games in hand to make up the point.

First Impressions
Wow this is stupid! Keeping track of the whole wild card thing is going to be a real pain in the ass. It really means the 4th place teams are going to have to always be wary of how many points the teams in the opposite division are racking up.

Second Impressions
It's interesting that you basically have the same teams in the playoffs that are currently sitting in playoff spots. Only the Rangers drop because of the addition of Detroit to the East and if the Rags could get a point in their next two they'd knock the Wings out.

Third Impressions
The Coyotes would face Chicago in the opening round, which kind of undoes the entire point of re-aligning into divisions on a geographic basis for the playoffs. Congrats for dominating the conference, Chicago, now you get the pleasure of a cross-country flight to Phoenix to open the playoffs anyway. That ends up giving a major advantage to the teams that finish 2-3 in the division because they probably won't have to do nearly as much traveling. Say it's the other way around and Dallas got in over San Jose; I'd much rather be the Kings in 2nd just flying to Vancouver than the Ducks having to fly back and forth to Dallas in the opening round. It could be even worse- L.A. to Winnipeg or Minnesota for Round 1.

Conclusion
This system is stupid and as usual it's biased against Western Conference teams. I honestly don't think the people who designed it even ran a test to see what could happen with their dumb wild card idea.