It was the final step in the process after the NHL Players Association gave its consent to the plan last week. The NHLPA has agreed to this framework through the 2015-16 season with the expectation that both sides will begin reviewing how realignment has fared after the 2014-15 season.

The plan, will see the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets move to the Eastern Conference from the West, a move that both franchises had been pushing for.

Now all 16 NHL clubs in the Eastern Time Zone are in the same conference, leaving 14 teams in the Western Conference. It will also see the NHL move from six divisions to four.

The Dallas Stars have complained for years about being in the Pacific Division with clubs two time zones away. They were pushing to find a new group and they got their wish, now in a division next season with Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg.

The playoffs have also been changed, going to a division-based system. The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs with the remaining top two clubs in each conference qualifying as wild-cards. So in theory, for example, you could have five teams from one division make the playoffs and only three from another.

Teams will play other clubs from the other conference at least twice each season in a home and away.

The vote is expected to be completed by the end of the week.

The NHLPA announced last Thursday that the players’ union wants to go forward with the league’s realignment plan. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr signed off on the plan and said it will be “re-evaluated following the 2014-15 season.”

The new structure includes two conferences and four divisions. The Eastern Conference will include the Central and Atlantic Division, while the Western Conference will feature the Pacific and Midwest.

If approved, the League’s new realignment plan will go into effect starting with the 2013-14 season.

“The NHL Players’ Association confirmed to us today that it has consented to a revised Plan for Realignment, effective for the 2013-14 season,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. “Our next step will be to bring the proposed Plan for Realignment to the NHL Board of Governors for its consideration. We will update the status of the process as future developments warrant.”

The NHL worked in conjunction with the NHLPA to formulate this realignment plan.

“After discussions with the Executive Board, the NHLPA has given consent to realignment, to be re-evaluated following the 2014-15 season,” NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr said in a statement.

Daly confirmed to NHL.com on Thursday that in the NHL’s proposed plan the League will be broken into a two-conference, four-division set up with 16 teams in the Eastern Conference and 14 teams in the Western Conference. The Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets would move to the Eastern Conference and the Winnipeg Jets would move to the Western Conference.

Daly also confirmed that the Stanley Cup Playoffs reportedly will still consist of 16 teams, eight in each conference, but the League is proposing a wild-card system in which the top three teams in each division make the playoffs and the remaining spots are filled by the two teams in each conference with the next most points.

• Per John Shannon, Jamie Benn has been fined the max amount of $10,000 for his cross-check on Ryan Jones.
• Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch proposes the matter of realignment may be resolved in the next few days. ”Told the #NHLPA could vote on realignment as soon as Sunday. #NHL Board of Governors will vote shortly after, if players approve.”
• TheFourthPeriod.com reports, the failed attempt to sign Ryan O’Reilly may also hurt the Calgary Flames chances of keeping captain Jarome Iginla. “We tried to improve our hockey team today,” Feaster told reporters yesterday. “We try to improve it tomorrow. That’s where we are.” Iginla will decide in the coming weeks whether he wants to extend his contract with the Flames or ask for a trade.

But we are looking at a situation like the original December 2011 plan — four conferences with four teams in each conference making the playoffs and playing the first two rounds; just like the old divisional format in the National Hockey League. That’s what the NHL wanted but the NHLPA didn’t want to do that, so what we’re likely to see this time around is three teams from each of the four conferences guaranteed a playoff spot and then fill out with wild card spots the rest of the way.

So, four of 18 teams would be in the running based on their total points but we don’t know at this point how those will be allocated in terms of the first and second round of the playoffs.

Pierre LeBrun: And with Detroit and Columbus going East, that leaves only 14 teams in what we call the Western Conference right now and I think it’s reasonable to infer from that that if the Phoenix Coyotes ever have to relocate next year – and I’m not saying they’re moving – it will probably be out West where there’s only 14 teams. And obviously Seattle very much comes to mind as a possibility.

Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto would make up one part of the Eastern Conference, while Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington would fill out the other Eastern Conference division.

Western Conference, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg would make up one division, while the other would be rounded out by Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Jose.

The process would need to be ratified by the NHL Board of Governors and National Hockey League Players Association. The NHL tried to realign the divisions last season, but the NHLPA rejected it, so we will have to wait for word on how the players view the changes. Certainly Eastern Time Zone teams like the Detroit Red Wings, who have been traveling regularly to the other end of the US and Canada as members of the Western Conference should be thrilled with less travel.

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com reported that both the NHL and the NHLPA have been working towards a realignment plan over the past two weeks, including a meeting on Tuesday in Toronto.

Both sides have been working on a quick resolution in order to get a plan in place before the 2013-14 schedule is drawn up.

“We’ve been exchanging information and we’re trying to get to a resolution as soon as possible,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly told LeBrun on Tuesday.

If discussions stay on track, both sides could meet again next week. That could set the table for an owners vote of approval the week of February 25 with an NHLPA executive vote involving the 30 player representatives also planned.

In terms of the realignment plan, details have yet to be released in terms of how it would differ from the one the Board of Governors approved in December 2011.

That plan saw four conferences drawn up, instead of the current system of two conferences with three divisions apiece.

The proposed conferences were as follows:

Conference A: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver.

Conference B: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg.

Conference C: Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto.

Conference D: Carolina, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington.

The PA voted down this proposal on January 6 citing the possibility for imbalanced travel between the conferences as well as a disparity in playoff chances between the seven-team and eight-team conferences.

A change may be in the works to the proposed system of four playoff teams per conference in efforts to appease those dissatisfied with the previous proposal.

The team-by-team composition of the new realignment plan is not yet known but the Winnipeg Jets are one of the teams most awaiting realignment.

Still playing in the Southeast Division in place of their predecessors from Atlanta, the Jets and their fans would welcome a move to a Western-based division or conference to cut down on travel and draw on potential regional rivals.

“It’s our hope obviously that we get out of the Southeast Division and we end up in something along the lines that we agreed to [in December 2011],” Jets chairman and governor Mark Chipman told LeBrun on Tuesday. “But I’m not aware of what, if any changes, are being contemplated.”

The first indication of the relationship between the NHL and the NHLPA in the post-Owners Lockout III Era will come within the next week when the parties are expected to discuss realignment that would go into effect with the 2013-14 season. Last winter the league unilaterally announced a plan to realign into a four-conference setup for this season. The plan, which featured two seven-team conferences, two eight-team conferences with the top four teams in each conference then qualifying for the playoffs, was quashed within days when the NHLPA refused to give its assent.

Now, they’re trying it again, and the rules of engagement remain the same in that the union must approve any such change in working conditions, though, as deputy commissioner Bill Daly noted in an email, that approval “must not be unreasonably withheld.”

Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall who is the team’s representative to the Players Association was terse in describing the sentiment amongst his fellow Players Association reps from other teams. Asked whether most were against the realignment plan as currently constructed, Kronwall replied, “I think with the concerns that most guys had, yes,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

However, all hope is not lost. Kronwall’s teammate Nicklas Lidstrom believes that something could be resolved in time for the changes to take effect by 2012-13.. “I think they can still talk about it, they can come to a solution,” Lidstrom speculated.

The changes were approved in December by the NHL’s board of governors, with the league planning to switch from two three-division conferences to four seven- or eight-team conferences.

“It is unfortunate that the NHLPA has unreasonably refused to approve a plan that an overwhelming majority of our clubs voted to support, and that has received such widespread support from our fans and other members of the hockey community, including players,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.

‘A source told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun a possible next step for the NHL could be to bring a grievance against the NHLPA, if the league feels the players’ association unreasonably withheld its consent. If the league wins that grievance, it could unilaterally implement realignment for the 2013-14 season’.

This issue is far from over. Expect a lot of back and forth between the NHL and NHLPA before there is any resolution.