How the "Hamilton Coyotes" would impact NHL travel

by Dirk Hoag on Sep 2, 2009 10:27 AM EDT Comment 12 comments

Last month, Jim Balsillie's legal representative Richard Rodier stated quite confidently that if he is successful in winning the auction for the Phoenix Coyotes, the team will immediately relocate to Hamilton, Ontario for Opening Night of the upcoming regular season:

That's part of our relocation application — the arena's ready to go, pretty much. It will be ready to go for the first game of the regular season, without a doubt. ... I'm optimistic that the team will be playing in Hamilton in October.

We all know this to be laughably absurd in terms of its impact on the rest of the league, but exactly how much so? Thanks to a prompt from Buddy at Preds on the Glass, I've plugged a hypothetical "Hamilton Coyotes" into my NHL Super Schedule to see how a relocated team which remains in the Pacific Division would influence the travel burden on various teams.

First, let's take a look at the overall mileage totals, showing current numbers, a hypothetical mileage with the Coyotes in Hamilton, and the difference by team:

Team	2009-10 Miles	Hypothetical	Diff
Anaheim Ducks	49068	58684	+9616
Atlanta Thrashers	37768	37768	0
Boston Bruins	34969	33611	-1358
Buffalo Sabres	25911	25903	-8
Calgary Flames	55331	56862	+1531
Carolina Hurricanes	38360	38360	0
Chicago Blackhawks	43417	43859	+442
Colorado Avalanche	43405	48302	+4897
Columbus Blue Jackets	40410	41643	+1233
Dallas Stars	51182	52577	+1395
Detroit Red Wings	42477	41978	-499
Edmonton Oilers	49191	52299	+3108
Florida Panthers	47873	47873	0
Los Angeles Kings	45682	55201	+9519
Minnesota Wild	43599	43108	-491
Montreal Canadiens	38029	35338	-2691
Nashville Predators	39749	37275	-2474
New Jersey Devils	31340	30268	-1072
New York Islanders	31550	29999	-1551
New York Rangers	33615	32543	-1072
Ottawa Senators	34338	37963	+3625
Philadelphia Flyers	29087	31443	+2356
Phoenix Coyotes	49707	63078	+13371
Pittsburgh Penguins	29691	29691	0
San Jose Sharks	46415	56375	+9960
St. Louis Blues	44971	45760	+789
Tampa Bay Lightning	37722	38809	+1087
Toronto Maple Leafs	32313	32313	0
Vancouver Canucks	48221	49627	+1406
Washington Capitals	33561	33561	0
Average	40782	42069	+1287

Besides seeing the Coyotes leap to the top of the league in travel miles, three other teams in the Pacific Division (Anaheim, Los Angeles, and San Jose) face 20% jumps, while Dallas doesn't get hurt quite so much.

The really insane part comes with some of the back-to-back situations that would be created. The "Hamilton Coyotes" would, on 12 occasions, host a team which has played the previous night, and had to travel more than 1,000 miles to Copps Coliseum. The most egregious examples?

The Anaheim Ducks would host Vancouver on Friday, October 30th, then zip over a mere 2,139 miles to play the Coyotes on Halloween. Just two months later, they'd get to make a similar jump from Colorado to Hamilton (1,315 miles) which includes a 2-hour shift from Mountain to Eastern time.
The Philadelphia Flyers would have a five-game western road trip interrupted by a diversion to Hamilton. After playing at the Kings and Sharks, an overnight flight from San Jose (2,233 miles) would have them playing the Coyotes on Saturday, November 21, then head back west to Colorado for a Monday date with the Avalanche.
For the San Jose Sharks, all three of their road games against the Coyotes would come after playing a game in California the night before. They would have to travel over 2,000 miles to Hamilton to play the Coyotes the next night, and also lose 3 hours due to the time zone change.

The NHLPA would have an interesting decision on their hands (if they had a solid leader, that is). Do they take issue with such an immediate, forced relocation of a team, which is not just disruptive to the lives of the Coyotes, but would set up some truly awful travel situations for a number of other squads?

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Let's hope ...

…that this remains,forever, a hypothetical question, and that SillyBalls will never own an NHL team.

That said, the Pacific Division has a legitimate beef if it happens. The season will start in utter chaos with the NHL dealing with an owner they despise, an NHLPA in transition, and travel budgets going through the roof for some teams. Perhaps they could make Balsillie to cover the all the extra travel expenses, not that it would hurt him much.

by expatwildcat on Sep 2, 2009 1:23 PM EDT reply actions

Restructuring

The league needs a restructure anyway – this will help out.

Contributor to The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.

by Derek Zona on Sep 2, 2009 1:39 PM EDT reply actions

I agree the divisions need to be re-done, but not in this way.

Not very often is what the NHL says the gospel truth, but in this case a move to Hamilton for this season is logisically impossible.

by Art Middleton on Sep 2, 2009 1:41 PM EDT up reply actions

If for whatever reason the Coyotes are suddenly in Hamilton, the league would quickly do a realignment. It wouldn’t be pretty, but it’d be better than just leaving Hamilton where Phoenix is now. Fun hypothetical, but won’t ever happen.

by VodkaFish on Sep 2, 2009 1:40 PM EDT reply actions

I agree- I think you would have to realign the divisions. Vancouver would probably enter the Pacific, or possibly Colorado if the league wants to stick with having three Canadian teams in the Northwest division.

Fear The Fin: Where Selling Your Soul Is The Likely Solution

by Mr. Plank on Sep 2, 2009 6:47 PM EDT up reply actions

The problem is that if you had a quick realignment, it would introduce even more scheduling chaos, as the number of games between various teams would have to change.

More fun than a stick to the face!
On the Forecheck is SB Nation's blog covering the Nashville Predators.

by Dirk Hoag on Sep 2, 2009 7:04 PM EDT up reply actions

There's just no way one could do a realignment well if forced to do it quickly

If Mr. Blackberry ever gets his hands on a team, I HOPE the league would at least force him to wait a season or two, to accommodate the move and massive changes it would create. I’d rather not have to entertain messy possibility, though.

resident cartoonist @CouchTarts Endorsed by Mr. K on "CINCODEMYOOR!!!!!" Proud member of the "Don't Trade Marleau" Club

by CTGray on Sep 2, 2009 9:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Very true, and that’s an issue I definitely considered. I’m just not sure there’s any way the league is able to handle it otherwise. The schedule makers would be busy as all hell, and the team’s individual travel coordinators would be too, but I think it might be better than this. In an Olympic year that’s a situation that is going to produce a lot of injuries.

The whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Fear The Fin: Where Selling Your Soul Is The Likely Solution

by Mr. Plank on Sep 3, 2009 5:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow. If Phoenix does move to Hamilton, the Sharks will have to travel around 300 miles more than last year, despite originally having 9696 fewer miles this year. That really, really sucks. And then add in all the three time zone back-to-back games, and it just ends up being horrible for the Sharks.

And then the Ducks would have over 58,000 miles to travel… That’s insane. I thought the 56,111 miles the Sharks had to travel was a lot last year. Plus Phoenix with over 63,000 miles? Damn. I mean, Balsillie would bring that on himself, but still.

I don’t see any way any of the Pacific Division owners would allow this to happen this season. There was probably significant lobbying from the Sharks ownership for a reduced travel schedule after the 3,000 mile gap from them to the next highest, and they end up with more? That’s not going to fly.

"I think I realized after the second or third punch, I should have taken his helmet off sooner." - Ryane Clowe
Proud member of the "Don't Trade Marleau" Club
Fools and Sages

by mymclife on Sep 2, 2009 4:02 PM EDT reply actions

How the realignment would work...

OK then, next question is, who moves west to fill the vacancy in the Northwest? THinking the only reasonable candidate is Chicago. And who switches to the Western Conference—Pittsburgh? That actually makes some sense to put the Pens and BlueJackets in the same division. Either Boston or Buffalo could then drop to the Atlantic. Not saying any of that should happen, but it’s the best I can think of.

by silverpie on Sep 2, 2009 10:41 PM EDT reply actions

Don’t kid yourselves. As stupid as it seems when the league does some of the things they have done in the past, they really aren’t that stupid. Don’t be surprised if the league has two schedules already made. The one that was released for the upcoming season, and one, just in case they lose this court battle. They’re prepared, don’t you worry

by Dominic123 on Sep 3, 2009 8:27 AM EDT reply actions

While I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right, the judge did criticize the NHL for not already having a schedule drawn up based on a possible Hamilton relocation. That point did get brought up, although I can’t remember exactly where I saw it.

More fun than a stick to the face!
On the Forecheck is SB Nation's blog covering the Nashville Predators.

by Dirk Hoag on Sep 3, 2009 9:30 AM EDT up reply actions