Halifax, Philadelphia to Join IceHL

Well this is only a week late.

Last Friday, our city polls came to an end. The two teams being relocated got new homes and voters made some decisions about what to call the teams that are being rebranded.

New cities to be welcomed in 2013-14

That's where two IceHL teams are being moved to this fall. Halifax, Nova Scotia was the most popular locale as it won both polls. But of course only one team can go there. With 39% of the vote, it'll be the Atlanta Arsenal moving north. 

Coming in at a close second, Philadelphia, Penn. will be the new home of the Regina Renegades. The move puts the team squarely on the eastern side of the map, which means they'll probably have to come out of the IceHL WEST fantasy league. More on that in a moment.

Sharpshooters become Saskatchewan's team

For the most part, our teams marked for rebranding will be keeping the city name they've had for five years. Almost all but the Saskatoon Sharpshooters. With the relocation of the Regina club, the Sharpshooters will be renamed for the province of Saskatchewan. Whether the Sharpshooters name sticks around still remains to be seen.

Voters were also split over whether to rename the Dallas franchise for the state of Texas. So during name voting, both options are available.

League realignment still to be determined

Now to this. Realignment will be a hot topic this summer. With the Renegades moving east, it would be silly to keep them in the IceHL WEST. But moving teams isn't as easy as it sounds now that we have a committed group of awesome GMs managing each team.

It would be most obvious to move the Minnesota Mammoths — clearly the westernmost team in the IceHL EAST. But this is a team coming off a championship season, expecting to pick first overall in the next draft. If they moved to the WEST, that league would have two championship teams — and only one team can pick first overall.

So let's take a look at the map. The St. Louis Archers are the second westernmost team. They could move. But GM Ryan Laden has been doing a masterful job assembling a roster full of talent. Should his team move to the WEST, he faces a Keeper problem. Every year, IceHL GMs get to carry four players over to the next season. Certainly there would be overlap with existing IceHL WEST clubs.

This keeper overlap will be a problem no matter which teams move. That is, however, unless the GMs stay in their respective leagues. For example, if Philadelphia and Minnesota switch fantasy leagues, the GMs could switch teams as well meaning rosters wouldn't be an issue. The Mammoths' keepers would transfer to Philadelphia while the Renegades' keepers would transfer to Minnesota. But I doubt Minnesota's champion GM Matt Riegler will be eager to give up his Mammoth identity easily.

I've been coming up with ways of dealing with this realignment problem and how to compensate teams that end up losing out. But it's a tough call, I have to tell you. There don't seem to be any easy solutions.

How do we deal with realignment?

I know the GMs are all very nervous about what happens next. Given the keeper implications, all GMs have the potential to be impacted by this. So before I make any decisions, I'd like to get some feedback from the community here.

Bearing in mind the impact on the GMs, how do you guys think we should handle this? Do we make it simple and let Philadelphia play in the IceHL WEST for a season (a la Winnipeg in the NHL's Southeast Division) leaving the tough calls for a later date? Or do we just rip off the Band-aid and get it over with? And if so, how?

For now I leave you with this.

Hope my photo edits make IceHL relocation feel a little more real.

Comments

[Austin E.]

What should've been done in the first place was that the Arsenal move to an eastern city and have Regina move to a western city to stay out of all this trouble. I would've preferred a team in San Fran or Vegas than Philly anyways.

[Rob in Cascadia]

As I posted on the last post, while I understand the concerns for the GM's and the legacy attributes provided by the ESPN software, I think a more dramatic overhaul should be considered. Again my proposal would be:

WEST
Arctic Division:
Northwest Narwhals
Alaska Huskies
Edmonton Kodiacs
Calgary ---------

Pacific Division:
California Wave
Portland Pioneers
Seattle Aviators
Vancouver -------

Central-West Division:
Winnipeg Winterhawks
Boulder Beasts
Salt Lake City Scorpions
Saskatchewan --------

Central-East Division:
Minnesota Mammoths
Chicago Hitmen
St. Louis Archers
Milwaukee Lagers

EAST
Gulf Coast Division:
Dallas ------
Houston Hellcats
New Orleans Gators
Tampa Bay Barracudas

Southeast Division:
North Carolina Nighthawks
Washington Sentinels
Baltimore Blue Crabs
Philadelphia ------------

Border Division:
Hamilton --------
Montreal -------
Quebec Armada
Detroit ------

Northeast Division:
New York Guardians
Boston ---------
Hartford Mariners
Halifax --------

Map here
Current Western team are stars, Current Eastern teams are circles. Colors are separated to the 8 divisions listed above.

Unless there is sudden expansion, if the league is plotted out by what works best on a map, I believe that a configuration closer to this would work best.

[Brendan A.]

I like the alignment that Rob came up with, and it was one very similar to what I had in mind. Based off his proposal, maybe we can swap the Gulf Coast and Central-East Divisions to keep less stress on the leagues, only having to swap one team each (rather than entire divisions).

I would also be okay with Philadelphia playing one season in the Western Conference, because there's a very real possibility that there are more relocations coming up next year, where an Eastern team may end up making the jump East, countering the imbalance.

[DetMotorheads]

I actually like Robs idea, and would say we do 13/14 status quo, like the current Winnipeg situation, and going the full yearbwe re-org with all gms knowing that there are no keepers, or any conflicts, the player stays with whoever has had them the longest.

[Andy P]

Just a brief thought outside of the box - a bit: Why not switch two of the teams (say Regina/Philly with St. Louis) make everyone in each division keep only 2 players (protected players), do an expansion style draft for 2 more players from the un-protected players. It would make the actual cross-over less of a pain in the neck and could mitigate one team over another from being screwed due to switching conferences.

Otherwise, I would say pull an NHL, keep the status quo for this summer with Philly playing a western schedule (a la Winnipeg) and then do a league wide realignment next year with voting of maintaining conferences as they are or switching things up to a more unique alignment (something like the NFL/MLB with no regard to travel within conferences; or a North/South alignment; or a mimic of the NHL with 4 "conferences" of 8 teams each)

[defaultname]

I don't think divisions have to be even; It leaves more room for inter-conference relocation in the future. That being said, two even-sized conferences is a good idea, so that one doesn't have a 1 1/17 chance to win and one a 1/15. I figured each conference should have 2 divisions of 5, and one of 6. I don't have a good idea of a way to compensate St. Louis and Philly for switching conferences

WEST
Division A
Boulder
Dallas
Houston
New Orleans
Salt Lake City
St. Louis

Division B
Alaska
California
Portland
Seattle
Vancouver

Division C
Calgary
Edmonton
Northwest
Saskatoon
Winnipeg

EAST
Division A
Boston
Halifax
Hartford
Montréal
Québec

Division B
Chicago
Detroit
Hamilton
Milwaukee
Minnesota

Division C
Baltimore
New York
North Carolina
Philadelphia
Tampa Bay
Washington

And since Rob did it for his idea, I'll give you a map too