Report confirms that several Canadian franchises want the North Division to remain post-pandemic

Despite NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman already having stated that we are likely to revert to the traditional divisional alignment once the pandemic is under control and teams can freely cross the border, there are reportedly multiple North Division teams who hope to squeeze at least another year out of the re-alignment.

While the novelty of an all-Canadian division has worn off for some, others have found continuous excitement in the division, which contains 4 of the top-8 teams for goals per game league-wide. Add to that the fact that Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Mark Scheifele make up 5 of the NHL's top-6 in overall points, and it's clear to see that the re-alignment has been good for the game, at least in terms of an increase in offensive production from the 7 Canadian franchises.

During a segment on Saturday's edition of Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet's Chris Johnston reported that there is interest from multiple Canadian teams to carry the North Division into next season so that the fans can experience it live before the divisions return to normal.

"There are at least a couple of the Canadian teams that are still (holding) out hope that the North Division will live beyond this season, that they'll get at least one more year of that."

Bettman, however, fails to see the allure in allowing the divisional re-alignment last any longer than it has to, mostly due to concerns about whether there would be a consistently high level of excitement over in-division play in a full 82-game campaign, but also due to reasons relating to travel logistics - what with teams spread across several time zones.

"We did what we had to do this year, we had no choice if we were going to play," Bettman said on Friday. "I do believe that we may focus on more divisional play going forward, although I'm not sure if this much divisional play would hold interest for an 82-game schedule. But it's worked well for this year.

"Obviously, I don't envision it continuing ... I think our traditional alignment makes more sense and is more widely accepted."

The pandemic has caused its fair share of challenges over the last year, but the fact that it brought us an all-Canadian division, even for a short time, is the silver-lining that I'm sure most Canadians are glad to have seen, regardless of the circumstances.

Perhaps there is a solution to keep everyone happy here. Keep the current divisional alignment until the next set of CBA negotiations as a trial run, with mostly divisional play, but splash in some inter-divisional play as well to keep the interest level up. Food for thought.

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